Styrenic monomers

Commercially, anionic polymerization is limited to three monomers styrene, butadiene, and isoprene [78-79-5], therefore only two useful A—B—A block copolymers, S—B—S and S—I—S, can be produced direcdy. In both cases, the elastomer segments contain double bonds which are reactive and limit the stabhity of the product. To improve stabhity, the polybutadiene mid-segment can be polymerized as a random mixture of two stmctural forms, the 1,4 and 1,2 isomers, by addition of an inert polar material to the polymerization solvent ethers and amines have been suggested for this purpose (46). Upon hydrogenation, these isomers give a copolymer of ethylene and butylene. 

The molecules join together to form a long chain-like molecule which may contain many thousands of ethylene units. Such a molecule is referred to as a polymer, in this case polyethylene, whilst in this context ethylene is referred to as a monomer. Styrene, propylene, vinyl chloride, vinyl acetate and methyl methacrylate are other examples of monomers which can polymerise in this way. Sometimes two monomers may be reacted together so that residues of both are to be found in the same chain. Such materials are known as copolymers and are exemplified by ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymers and styrene-acrylonitrile copolymers. 

We ve seen on several occasions in previous chapters that a polymer, whether synthetic or biological, is a large molecule built up by repetitive bonding together of many smaller units, or monomers. Polyethylene, for instance, is a synthetic polymer made from ethylene (Section 7.10), nylon is a synthetic polyamide made from a diacid and a diamine (Section 21.9), and proteins are biological polyamides made from amino acids. Note that polymers are often drawn by indicating their repeating unit in parentheses. The repeat unit in polystyrene, for example, comes from the monomer styrene. 

Deuterated monomers (styrene, butadiene, oxirane, hexamethylcyclotrisiloxane)... 

The monomer, styrene, is a derivative of benzene, vinyl benzene (1.2). It is a colourless, mobile liquid that polymerises readily. The first report of the polymerisation reaction came in 1839, when E. Simon described the transformation of what was then called styrof. He believed he had oxidised the material and called the product styrol oxide. Later, when it was realised that it contained no oxygen, the product became known as metastyrene. 

Radio-chemical graft copolymerization with good efficiency on halogenated polyolefins has been carried out by contacting the substrate with monomer (styrene) vapor [158,159]. Interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) could be made by grafting the monomers on preirradiated substrates... 

For the remaining three systems, styrene-vinyl acetate, vinyl acetate-vinyl chloride, and methyl acrylate-vinyl chloride, one reactivity ratio is greater than unity and the other is less than unity. They are therefore nonazeotropic. Furthermore, since both ri and 1/7 2 are either greater than or less than unity, both radicals prefer the same monomer. In other words, the same monomer—styrene, vinyl chloride, and methyl acrylate in the three systems, respectively—is more reactive than the other with respect to either radical. This preference is extreme in the styrene-vinyl acetate system where styrene is about fifty times as reactive as vinyl acetate toward the styrene radical the vinyl acetate radical prefers to add the styrene monomer by a factor of about one hundred as compared with addition of vinyl acetate. Hence polymerization of a mixture of similar amounts of styrene and vinyl acetate yields an initial product which is almost pure polystyrene. Only after most of the styrene has polymerized is a copolymer formed... 

The order of reactivity of the radicals is the reverse of that for the monomers styrene radical is the least and vinyl acetate radical the... 

Figure 11. Conversion vs. weight fraction styrene in monomer, styrene n-butyl methacrylate (samples as for Figure 10) ((------) ti = 0.68, r == 0.45 (------)...

Grazing angle XAS techniques (XANES) can be applied to ultrathin film systems [316]. Selected NEX-AFS, XPS and FUR spectroscopy results were obtained for plasma-polymerised films with different monomers (styrene, acetylene, ethylene and butadiene) [317]. 

Applications As the basic process of electron transfer at an electrode is a fundamental electrochemical principle, polarography can widely be applied. Polarography can be used to determine electroreductible substances such as monomers, organic peroxides, accelerators and antioxidants in solvent extracts of polymers. Residual amounts of monomers remain in manufactured batches of (co)polymers. For food-packaging applications, it is necessary to ensure that the content of such monomers is below regulated level. Polarography has been used for a variety of monomers (styrene, a-methylstyrene, acrylic acid, acrylamide, acrylonitrile, methylmethacrylate) in... 

A high polymer resulting from the polymerisation of a mixture of two different monomers styrene-butadiene mbber, butyl (isoprene-isobutylene) mbber and nitrile (acrylonitrile-butadiene) mbber are typical copolymers. 

The aromatic mono-olefins have been studied more extensively and intensively than any other class of monomers. Styrene, in particular, has received much attention, but nuclear and side-chain substituted styrenes are still largely unexplored, except in regard to copolymerization. The only other aromatic monomers which have been studied in any detail are a-methylstyrene [1] and 1,1-diphenylethylene and some of its derivatives [10]. It is strange that even readily available monomers, such as indene [80] and acenaphthylene [54b, 81], have hardly been investigated. 

However, there are also many systems in which the evidence indicates that the propagating species cannot be a carbenium ion. Such reactions have been termed pseudo-cationic and in these polymerisations the propagating species is believed to be an ester. The most thoroughly investigated systems comprise aromatic monomers (styrene, acenaphthylene [11]) and protonic acids (HC104) or iodine [11] as initiators. The simplest representation of the propagation is as the addition of the ester (stabilised by four styrene molecules) across the double-bond of the monomer [12] ... 

The second model involves the reversible formation of a complex between the iodine and the monomer, and in this context it is unimportant whether the iodine forms an n-complex, e.g., with the O-atom of a vinyl ether, or a 7t-complex with a double-bond or an aromatic ring of the monomer (styrene, N-vinylcarbazole) the only important point is that the complexed monomer is very much more reactive with the propagating ester group than the uncomplexed monomer, and that its formation is an equilibrium reaction. [Very detailed studies of the reactions of iodine with styrene [38] and with butyl vinyl ether (nBVE) [39, 40] have been reported in which the formation of various complexes is discussed.]... 

An alternative approach to the use of partially fluorinated systems to reduce the cost of fluorinated PEMs has been developed by DeSimone et al. a perfluo-rinated vinyl ether is copolymerized with a hydrocarbon monomer (styrene), sulfonated, and then subsequently fluorinated to replace existing C-H bonds with C-E bonds (Eigure 3.18). Thus yields the perfluorinated, cross-linked sul-fonyl fluoride membrane that can then be hydrolyzed to give the PEM (7). Because the membranes are cross-linked, considerably higher acid contents (up to 1.82 meq/g) are possible for these materials in comparison to Nafion, leading also to higher proton conductivity values. 

A similar method can be used for the addition of carbon tetrachloride to nonpolymerizable olefins (e.g., 1-octene, 2-octene, 1-butene, 2-butene) pure adducts are obtained in yields of over 90% if the components are allowed to react at 100° for 6 hours. Adducts of carbon tetrachloride with vinylic monomers (styrene, butadiene, acrylonitrile, methyl acrylate, etc.) can be prepared in good yields by substituting cupric chloride dihydrate in acetonitrile for ferric chloride hexahydrate and benzoin. 

Iodine is unique among the halogens in that it initiates polymerization of the more reactive monomers (styrene, vinyl ether, acenaphthylene. /V-vinylcarbazole) even in the absence... 

Among the most extensive studies of monomer reactivity have been those involving the copolymerization of various meta- and para-substituted styrenes with other styrene monomers (styrene, a-methylstyrene, and p-chlorostyrene) as the reference monomer [Kennedy and Marechal, 1983], The relative reactivities of the various substituted styrenes have been correlated by the Hammett sigma-rho relationship ... 

In the case of vinyl monomers (styrene, acrylonitrile, acrlylamide, isobutylene, etc.) copolymerization is generally spontaneous however, the reaction products are determined by the kinetic constants - a case of interplay between thermodynamic and kinetic factors. 

Figure 28 shows the plastogram for an interstructural monomer (styrene). The mechanoehemical synthesis by mastication was also applied to natural polymers (80,82). The results are reported on Tables 19 and 20. 

Ethylbenzene is almost exclusively (> 99%) used as an intermediate for the manufacture of styrene monomer. Styrene production, which uses ethylbenzene as a starting material, consumes approximately 50% of the world s benzene production. Less than 1% of the ethylbenzene produced is used as a paint solvent or as an intermediate for the production of diethylbenzene and acetophenone. The ethy lbenzene present in recovered mixed xylenes is largely converted to xylenes or benzene (Coty et al., 1987 Caimella, 1998). 

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