Polydienes preparation

Table 22. Microstructure of Polydienes Prepared in Solvating Media ...

TABLE 2.14 Microstructure of Polydienes Prepared by Anionic Polymerizatioi ... 

POLYMERS FROM HYDROGENATED POLYDIENES PREPARED WITH NEODYMIUM CATALYSTS... 

Microstructure of polydienes prepared with R catalysts containing different rare earth elements (in %). 

Anionic polymerization of vinyl monomers can be effected with a variety of organometaUic compounds alkyllithium compounds are the most useful class (1,33—35). A variety of simple alkyllithium compounds are available commercially. Most simple alkyllithium compounds are soluble in hydrocarbon solvents such as hexane and cyclohexane and they can be prepared by reaction of the corresponding alkyl chlorides with lithium metal. Methyllithium [917-54-4] and phenyllithium [591-51-5] are available in diethyl ether and cyclohexane—ether solutions, respectively, because they are not soluble in hydrocarbon solvents vinyllithium [917-57-7] and allyllithium [3052-45-7] are also insoluble in hydrocarbon solutions and can only be prepared in ether solutions (38,39). Hydrocarbon-soluble alkyllithium initiators are used directiy to initiate polymerization of styrene and diene monomers quantitatively one unique aspect of hthium-based initiators in hydrocarbon solution is that elastomeric polydienes with high 1,4-microstmcture are obtained (1,24,33—37). Certain alkyllithium compounds can be purified by recrystallization (ethyllithium), sublimation (ethyllithium, /-butyUithium [594-19-4] isopropyllithium [2417-93-8] or distillation (j -butyUithium) (40,41). Unfortunately, / -butyUithium is noncrystaUine and too high boiling to be purified by distiUation (38). Since methyllithium and phenyllithium are crystalline soUds which are insoluble in hydrocarbon solution, they can be precipitated into these solutions and then redissolved in appropriate polar solvents (42,43). OrganometaUic compounds of other alkaU metals are insoluble in hydrocarbon solution and possess negligible vapor pressures as expected for salt-like compounds. 

Amination. The synthesis of polymers with primary amine end-group functionality has been a challenge because the primary amine group can undergo rapid chain transfer and termination reactions with car-banionic chain ends (14). Schulz and Halasa (15) used a phenyllith-ium initiator with a bis(trimethylsilyl)-protected amine group to prepare amine-terminated polydienes. Nakahama and coworkers (16,17)... 

The deliberate introduction of multifunctional branching into anionically prepared polydiene and poly (diene-co-styrene) polymers produces materials with unique morphological and viscoelastic properties (1-3). Work has included synthesis of symmetric star polymers produced by reaction of living polyanionic "arms" with multi-functional chlorosilane (4-9),... 

The third possibility to prepare graft copolymers is termed grafting onto . This means that a growing chain B attacks the polymer backbone A with formation of a long branch. This attack can be a chain-transfer reaction or a copolymerization with unsaturated groups, for example, in polydienes. These reactions play an important role in the preparation of high impact polystyrene (see... 

These results indicate that if polydienes and similar polymers can be prepared quantitatively with tertiary amine terminal groups, then they can be combined with other halogen functional polymers using established techniques to create interesting new block copolymer systems. For example, consider the reaction between telechelic pyridine terminated polybutadiene and monofunctional bromine terminated polystyrene (equation 4) -the latter has been prepared in 95% yield. >it The product would be an ABA... 

In alkyllithium initiated, solution polymerization of dienes, some polymerization conditions affect the configurations more than others. In general, the stereochemistry of polybutadiene and polyisoprene respond to the same variables Thus, solvent has a profound influence on the stereochemistry of polydienes when initiated with alkyllithium. Polymerization of isoprene in nonpolar solvents results largely in cis-unsaturation (70-90 percent) whereas in the case of butadiene, the polymer exhibits about equal amounts of cis- and trans-unsaturation. Aromatic solvents such as toluene tend to increase the 1,2 or 3,4 linkages. Polymers prepared in the presence of active polar compounds such as ethers, tertiary amines or sulfides show increased 1,2 (or 3,4 in the case of isoprene) and trans unsaturation.4. 1P U It appears that the solvent influences the ionic character of the propagating ion pair which in turn determines the stereochemistry. 

Synthesis of functional Terminal Polymers. Mono-and di- terminal -OH and - polydienes were prepared according to our published procedures (13.14). Star -OH polydienes were synthesized analogously except that ethyl 6-1ithiohexyl acetaldehyde acetal was used as the initiator and trichloromethylsilane as the joining agent. 

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