Of vinyl polymers

The low yields of vinyl polymers (Ganushchak et al., 1972) are probably due to the arylethane radical 10.17 reacting more rapidly with CuCl2 than with the vinyl monomer. The formation of 10.17 is also the initiation of the polymerization chain reaction. 

For these reasons, despite the apparent advantages and also despite the fact that bulk polymerisation is so often the method of choice for the laboratory preparation of vinyl polymers, this technique is not widely used in industry. Only three polymers are produced in this way, namely poly(ethylene), poly(styrene), and poly(methyl methacrylate). 

Table 5.14 NMR nuclei in stabiliser analysis of vinyl polymers...

It is well known that the mechanical and physical properties of vinyl polymers are dependent upon their stereochemical configuration. It is critical, therefore, that the stereoregularity of poly(TBTM/MMA) be determined accurately and conveniently if the field performance of the material is to be predicted with any certainty. The effectiveness of organometallic polymers as an anti-... 

Jellinek, H.H.G., "Degradation of Vinyl Polymers", Academic Press, New York, 1955. 

The nature of the chain substituents strongly influence the properties of the resulting polymer. For instance, the influence of the nature of chain substituents on Tg is illustrated in Table 3 for a series of vinyl polymers. 

Radical polymerization is the most useful method for a large-scale preparation of various kinds of vinyl polymers. More than 70 % of vinyl polymers (i. e. more than 50 % of all plastics) are produced by the radical polymerization process industrially, because this method has a large number of advantages arising from the characteristics of intermediate free-radicals for vinyl polymer synthesis beyond ionic and coordination polymerizations, e.g., high polymerization and copolymerization reactivities of many varieties of vinyl monomers, especially of the monomers with polar and unprotected functional groups, a simple procedure for polymerizations, excellent reproducibility of the polymerization reaction due to tolerance to impurities, facile prediction of the polymerization reactions from the accumulated data of the elementary reaction mechanisms and of the monomer structure-reactivity relationships, utilization of water as a reaction medium, and so on. 

The growth and development of vinyl polymers took place through several years. 

Before the mechanism of vinyl polymerization was understood, the question of the structure of vinyl polymers was of considerable interest. Staudinger had written these polymers as having a head-to-tail arrangement of recurring units, but he had not really furnished evidence of the structure. As Carothers once said, Staudinger had assigned the structure by pronouncement. He was as usual correct, and chemical evidence was developed to establish such structures. For example, when monovinyl methyl ketone polymerized, it could produce by head-to-head, tail-to-tail reaction a 1,4-diketone. By head-to-tail polymerization it would give a 1,5-diketone. These two types have different reactions. The study of the polymer proper showed that the polymer was a 1,5-diketone. In the case of polyvinyl chloride, a head-to-head, tail-to-tail polymerization would lead to a 1,2-dihalide compound, and a head-to-tail polymerization would lead to a 1,3-dihalide. 

Morawetz and co-workers did pioneering work on reactivity and conformation of vinyl polymers in solution. Their initial goal was to use reactive groups on the polymer backbone to probe conformation. In one early study Morawetz and Gaetjens (6S) reported on the preparation of a copolymer of methacrylic acid and p-nitrophenyl methacrylate (1-2%). Hydrolysis of the ester on the polymer involves the neighboring carboxyl group. 

On the basis of work on enzyme models of low molecular weight, Kunitake and his associates have prepared a variety of vinyl polymers containing the hydroxamate group. Gruhn and Bender (28, 30) investigated compound... 

Vinyl ethers are important raw materials in the production of glutaraldehyde, as well as of vinyl polymer materials which contain oxygen and are expected to degrade easily in Nature. The [IrCl(cod)]2 catalyzes an efficient exchange reaction between vinyl acetate 57 and alcohols or phenols 58, leading to the corresponding vinyl ethers 59 (Equation 10.11) [27]. Usually, the acid-catalyzed exchange reaction between alcohols and vinyl acetate results in alkyl acetates 60, and also to vinyl alcohol 61 which is readily isomerized to acetaldehyde 62. 

Tertiary carbon atoms along the chain have been defined as asymmetric (22-25, 34-37), pseudoasymmetric (6, 10, 38-40), stereoisomeric centers (30, 31), and diasteric centers (41). The first two terms put the accent on chirality and are linked to the use of models of finite and infinite length, respectively the last two consider only phenomena of stereoisomerism. Note the relationship between these last definitions and Mislow s and Siegel s recent discussion (42), where the two concepts—stereoisomerism (or stereogenicity) and chirality—are clearly distinguished. The tertiary carbon atoms of vinyl polymers are always stereogenic whether they are chinotopic or achirotopic (42) depends on stmctural features and also on the type of model chosen (43). 

---