Methyl methacrylate propagation

Polar effects appear to be of prime importance in determining the effect of quinones. p-Benzoquinone and chloranil (which are electron-poor) act as inhibitors toward electron-rich propagating radicals (vinyl acetate and styrene) but only as retarders toward the electron-poor acrylonitrile and methyl methacrylate propagating radicals. A further observation is that the inhibiting ability of a quinone toward electron-poor monomers can be increased by the addition of an electron-rich third component such as an amine. Thus the presence of triethylamine converts chloranil from a very weak retarder to an inhibitor toward methyl methacrylate. 

There are some indications that the situation described above has been realized, at least partially, in the system styrene-methyl methacrylate polymerized by metallic lithium.29 29b It is known51 that in a 50-50 mixture of styrene and methyl methacrylate radical polymerization yields a product of approximately the same composition as the feed. On the other hand, a product containing only a few per cent of styrene is formed in a polymerization proceeding by an anionic mechanism. Since the polymer obtained in the 50-50 mixture of styrene and methyl methacrylate polymerized with metallic lithium had apparently an intermediate composition, it has been suggested that this is a block polymer obtained in a reaction discussed above. Further evidence favoring this mechanism is provided by the fact that under identical conditions only pure poly-methyl methacrylate is formed if the polymerization is initiated by butyl lithium and not by lithium dispersion. This proves that incorporation of styrene is due to a different initiation and not propagation. 

Formation of block polymers is not limited to hydrocarbon monomers only. For example, living polystyrene initiates polymerization of methyl methacrylate and a block polymer of polystyrene and of polymethyl methacrylate results.34 However, methyl methacrylate represents a class of monomers which may be named a suicide monomer. Its polymerization can be initiated by carbanions or by an electron transfer process, the propagation reaction is rapid but eventually termination takes place. Presumably, the reactive carbanion interacts with the methyl group of the ester according to the following reaction... 

Fig. 3. Arrhenius plots of the propagation rate constants kp of the anionic polymerization of methyl methacrylate in THF for different ion pairs including the propagation rate constant at —98 °C with cryptated sodium and of the free PMMA-anion (H. Jeuck, A. H. E. Muller, Ref. 34 )-...

For NMR studies of polymer mixtures, the earliest approach proposed was the Coleman-Fox model.(5) This model assumes the coexistence of two interconverting Bemoullian propagating sites and was used extensively for poly(methyl methacrylate).(6-8)... 

Torkelson and coworkers [274,275] have developed kinetic models to describe the formation of gels in free-radical pol5nnerization. They have incorporated diffusion limitations into the kinetic coefficient for radical termination and have compared their simulations to experimental results on methyl methacrylate polymerization. A basic kinetic model with initiation, propagation, and termination steps, including the diffusion hmitations, was found to describe the gelation effect, or time for gel formation, of several samples sets of experimental data. 

The results of chain transfer studies with different polymer radicals are compared in Table XIV. Chain transfer constants with hydrocarbon solvents are consistently a little greater for methyl methacrylate radicals than for styrene radicals. The methyl methacrylate chain radical is far less effective in the removal of chlorine from chlorinated solvents, however. Vinyl acetate chains are much more susceptible to chain transfer than are either of the other two polymer radicals. As will appear later, the propagation constants kp for styrene, methyl methacrylate, and vinyl acetate are in the approximate ratio 1 2 20. It follows from the transfer constants with toluene, that the rate constants ktr,s for the removal of benzylic hydrogen by the respective chain radicals are in the ratio 1 3.5 6000. Chain transfer studies offer a convenient means for comparing radical reactivities, provided the absolute propagation constants also are known. 

Very similar variations in average copolymer composition with conversion have recently been observed in the styrene methyl methacrylate system by both Johnson et al ( and by Dionisio and O Driscoll (. The reason for the variation may be due to a viscosity effect on propagation rate constants QO). 

Solomon (3, h, 5.) reported that various clays inhibited or retarded free radical reactions such as thermal and peroxide-initiated polymerization of methyl methacrylate and styrene, peroxide-initiated styrene-unsaturated polyester copolymerization, as well as sulfur vulcanization of styrene-butadiene copolymer rubber. The proposed mechanism for inhibition involved deactivation of free radicals by a one-electron transfer to octahedral aluminum sites on the clay, resulting in a conversion of the free radical, i.e. catalyst radical or chain radical, to a cation which is inactive in these radical initiated and/or propagated reactions. 

Different initiators have varying transfer constants (Table 3-5). Further, the value of C) for a particular initiator also varies with the reactivity of the propagating radical. Thus there is a fivefold difference in C) for cumyl hydroperoxide toward poly(methyl methacrylate) radical compared to polystyryl radical. The latter is the less reactive radical see Sec. 6-3b. 

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