Molecular weight coordination polymerization

It has been suggested that dimers are probably four-membered As—N rings, with five-coordinated arsenic. However, no physical evidence is available except molecular weight measurements. Polymeric structures (XIV) may be suggested for X8As(NR)6 but again, any physical evidence is so far lacking ... 

The principal method for synthesizing fluoropolymers is free radical polymerization, as the other typical methods, for example, cationic polymerization proves ineffective, due to the electrophilic nature of fluoroolefins. Fluoroolefins can be polymerized by anionic catalysts, but termination by fluoride ion elimination prevents formation of high molecular weights. Coordination catalysts do not effect polymerization of fluoroolefins. 

In homopolymers all tire constituents (monomers) are identical, and hence tire interactions between tire monomers and between tire monomers and tire solvent have the same functional fonn. To describe tire shapes of a homopolymer (in the limit of large molecular weight) it is sufficient to model tire chain as a sequence of connected beads. Such a model can be used to describe tire shapes tliat a chain can adopt in various solvent conditions. A measure of shape is tire dimension of tire chain as a function of the degree of polymerization, N. If N is large tlien tire precise chemical details do not affect tire way tire size scales witli N [10]. In such a description a homopolymer is characterized in tenns of a single parameter tliat essentially characterizes tire effective interaction between tire beads, which is obtained by integrating over tire solvent coordinates. 

In their polymerization, many individual alkene molecules combine to give a high molecular weight product Among the methods for alkene polymerization cationic polymerization coordination polymerization and free radical polymerization are the most important An example of cationic polymerization is... 

Polymers with much higher average molecular weights, from 90,000 to 4 x 10 , are formed by a process of coordinate anionic polymerization (43—45). The patent Hterature describes numerous organometaUic compounds, aLkaline-earth compounds, and mixtures as polymerization catalysts. Iron oxides that accumulate in ethylene oxide storage vessels also catalyze polymerization. This leads to the formation of nonvolatile residue (NVR) no inhibitor has been found (46). 

Currently, more SBR is produced by copolymerizing the two monomers with anionic or coordination catalysts. The formed copolymer has better mechanical properties and a narrower molecular weight distribution. A random copolymer with ordered sequence can also be made in solution using butyllithium, provided that the two monomers are charged slowly. Block copolymers of butadiene and styrene may be produced in solution using coordination or anionic catalysts. Butadiene polymerizes first until it is consumed, then styrene starts to polymerize. SBR produced by coordinaton catalysts has better tensile strength than that produced by free radical initiators. 

The processes of reversible adsorption of the coordination" inhibitors (including the adsorption of organometallic compounds) result in an increase in the lifetime of the transition metal-carbon bond. It is possible that due to this, in the case of propylene polymerization by two-component catalysts based on TiCU, at low temperatures a long-term increase of molecular weight with time was observed (192,193). 

From an industrial stand-point, a major virtue of radical polymerizations is that they can often be carried out under relatively undemanding conditions. In marked contrast to ionic or coordination polymerizations, they exhibit a tolerance of trace impurities, A consequence of this is that high molecular weight polymers can often be produced without removal of the stabilizers present in commercial monomers, in the presence of trace amounts of oxygen, or in solvents that have not been rigorously dried or purified, Indeed, radical polymerizations are remarkable amongst chain polymerization processes in that they can be conveniently-conducted in aqueous media. 

The presence of long chain branches in low density polyethylene (LDPE) accounts for the difference in properties e.g. higher melt strength, greater toughness for the same average molecular weight) between LDPE and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE, made by coordination polymerization). 

A common theme in the speculated polymerization reactions discussed in this section is that the polymers were generally uncharacterized or were composed of small cyclic oligomers. No evidence for high molecular weight polymers from low-coordinate phosphorus compounds was obtained. Of course, multiple bond formation, not polymerization, was the focus of these studies. 

Coordination polymerization is the most versatile method of preparing PCL and its copolymers, affording high molecular weights and conversions, and either block or random copolymers depending on the conditions. As with the preceding classes of initiators, the product... 

It seems likely that further improvements in this coordination polymerization technique will require design of more active catalysts. The catalyst systems currently available are very amenable to modifications that dramatically influence dehydrocoupling rates. Significantly, results so far indicate that there is no inherent limitation to molecular weight control via polymerizations of this type, and in principle it should be possible to identify conditions and catalysts that allow production of high polymers. 

Atom transfer radical polymerization, ATRP, is a controlled radical process which affords polymers of narrow molecular weight distributions. Strictly this is not a coordinative polymerization, but its dependency upon suitable coordination complexes warrants a brief discussion here. 

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