Nitroxide-mediated radical mechanism

For SCVP of styrenic inimers, the mechanism includes cationic (14 [18], 19 [29]), atom transfer radical (15 [22, 27]), nitroxide-mediated radical (16 [21]), anionic (20 [19]), photo-initiated radical (17 [2], 18 [52-55]), and ruthenium-catalyzed coordinative (21 [56]) polymerization systems. Another example in-... 

Nitroxide mediated radical polymerization (NMRP) was pioneered by Riz-zardo and Solomon in the mid-1980s [1]. Their work went unnoticed for almost a decade until Georges et al. reported the preparation of narrow polydispersity (PD) (<1.2) polystyrene using NMRP [2]. This report initiated an explosion of research aimed at both understanding the mechanism of NMRP and also utilizing it to prepare block copolymers. This chapter describes the application and limitations of NMRP for making styrene-containing block copolymers. 

One of the limitations of anionic polymerization with respect to preparation of block copolymers is the rather limited range of monomers that can be polymerized anionically to form polymers with well-defined stmctures. One solution to this problem is to utilize anionic polymerization to form a well-defined polymer that is functionalized with an end group that can be used to initiate polymerization via another polymerization method, for example, controlled free-radical polymerization. One such functional group is the aminoxy group which can be used to initiate nitroxide-mediated radical polymerization (NMP). °° PSLi has been reacted with 4-methoxy-2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidin-1-oxyl (MTEMPO), a stable nitroxide free radical, in THF at -78 °C as shown in eqn [30]. The mechanism of this functionalization was presumed to occur... 

Currently, most of the LFRP research is focused on the use of nitroxides as the stable freeradical. The main problems associated with nitroxide mediated radical polymerizations (NMRP) are slow polymerization rate and the inabihty to make high molecular weight narrow polydispersity PS. This inabihty is hkely due to side reactions of the living end leading to termination rather than propagation (243). The polymerization rate can be accelerated by the addition of acids or anhydrides to the process (244). The mechanism of the accelerative effect of the acid is not certain. Another problem with nitroxides is that they work well for vinylaromatic monomers, but not for acrylate and diene monomers. This has... 

Diagram 3.2. General mechanism of nitroxide mediated radical polymerization... 

The identification of both phenylethyl and 1-phenyl-1,2,3,4-lelrahydronaphthalenyl end groups in polymerizations of styrene retarded by FeCl3/DMP provides the most compelling evidence for the Mayo mechanism.316 The 1-phenyl-1.2,3,4-tetrahydronaphthalenvl end group is also seen amongst other products in the TEMPO mediated polymerization of styrene,317318 However, the mechanism of formation of radicals 96 in this case involves reaction of the nitroxide with the Diels-AIder dimer (Scheme 3.63). The mechanism of nitroxide mediated polymerization is discussed further in Section 9.3.6. 

The literature on Nitroxide-Mediated Polymerization (NMP) through 2001 was reviewed by Hawker el al. vu 7 More recently the subject has been reviewed by Sluder and Schulte10 and Solomon.109 NMP is also discussed by Fischer110 and Goto and Fukuda" in their reviews of the kinetics of living radical polymerization and is mentioned in most reviews on living radical polymerization. A simplified mechanism of NMP is shown in Scheme 9.17. 

In processes based on reversible termination, like NMCRP and ATRP (Sect. 4.4.2), a species is added which minimizes bimolecular termination by reversible coupling. In NMCRP this species is a nitroxide. The mechanism of nitroxide-mediated CRP is based on the reversible activation of dormant polymer chains (Pn-T) as shown in Scheme 1. This additional reaction step in the free-radical polymerization provides the living character and controls the molecular weight distribution. 

Atom transfer free-radical polymerization (ATRP) proceeds by a transient/ stable radical mechanism analagous to nitroxide-mediated free-radical polymerizations (see Section 3). This controlled polymerization concept was first described independently by two research groups in 1995, and exhibits a high degree of control over the molecular weight of the desired polymer and more remarkably, the ability to realize very narrow molecular weight distributions < 1.05). ATRP methodologies involve (see... 

The use of nitroxides as mediating radicals has been revealed to be highly successful in living free-radical polymerization and has received considerable attention for more than 10 years [203-207]. Much attention has been devoted to understanding the mechanism (Scheme 35) and kinetics for NMP [208-210]. 

A similar approach was followed with the eROP of 4-MeCL, followed by nitroxide mediated living free radical polymersation (NMP) of styrene using a bifunctional catalyst (Scheme 11.18) [62]. Styrene, the monomer for the NMP, was added already at the beginning since it proved to be a good solvent for the eROP of lactones. At low temperatures, no radical polymerization occurs thus the two polymerization mechanisms are thermally separated. When the eROP reached a conversion of 50%, a lipase inhibitor, paraoxon, was added to the reaction mixture to prevent further incorporation of the undesired enantiomer. Increasing the temperature to 95 °C started the nitroxide mediated LFRP, to afford block copolymers. After precipitation, the chiral block copolymers obtained showed two Tg s at-51 °C and 106 °C. The specific rotation [a]D25 of the block copolymer was -2.6°. 

There are four principal mechanisms that have been put forward to achieve living free-radical polymerization (1) Polymerization with reversible termination by coupling, the best example in this class being the alkoxyamine-initiated or nitroxide-mediated polymerization, as first described by Solomon et al. (1985) (2) polymerization with reversible termination by hgand transfer to a metal complex (usually abbreviated as ATRP),(Wang and Matyjaszewski, 1995) (3) polymerization with reversible chain transfer (also termed degenerative chain transfer)-, and (4) reversible addition/ffagmentation chain transfer (RAFT). 

The fifty chapters submitted for publication in the ACS Symposium series could not fit into one volume and therefore we decided to split them into two volumes. In order to balance the size of each volume we did not divide the chapters into volumes related to mechanisms and materials but rather to those related to atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) and to other controlled/living radical polymerization methods reversible-addition fragmentation transfer (RAFT) and other degenerative transfer techniques, as well as stable free radical pol5mierizations (SFRP) including nitroxide mediated polymerization (NMP) and organometallic mediated radical polymerization (OMRP). 

Controlled/ Living radical polymerization (CRP) of vinyl acetate (VAc) via nitroxide-mediated polymerization (NMP), organocobalt-mediated polymerization, iodine degenerative transfer polymerization (DT), reversible radical addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerization (RAFT), and atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) is summarized and compared with the ATRP of VAc catalyzed by copper halide/2,2 6 ,2 -terpyridine. The new copper catalyst provides the first example of ATRP of VAc with clear mechanism and the facile synthesis of poly(vinyl acetate) and its block copolymers. 

Since its discovery in 1993 [27], nitroxide-mediated polymerization (NMP) has been the most extensively studied technique from the dissociation-combination dass of LRP mechanisms (Scheme 13.7). This method is also commonly termed stable free radical polymerization (SFRP). NMP reactions are distinguished by the use of stable free radical nitroxide molecules (N ) as the controlling agent [e.g. 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidin-l-oxyl (TEMPO), (l-diethylphosphono-2,2-dimethyl)propyl nitroxide (DEPN)]. 

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