Polymerization chain transfer to monomer

Mechanisms. Because of its considerable industrial importance as well as its intrinsic interest, emulsion polymerization of vinyl acetate in the presence of surfactants has been extensively studied (75—77). The Smith-Ewart theory, which describes emulsion polymerization of monomers such as styrene, does not apply to vinyl acetate. Reasons for this are the substantial water solubiUty of vinyl acetate monomer, and the different reactivities of the vinyl acetate and styrene radicals the chain transfer to monomer is much higher for vinyl acetate. The kinetics of the polymerization of vinyl acetate has been studied and mechanisms have been proposed (78—82). 

End Groups and Branching. Both saturated and unsaturated end groups can be formed during polymerization by chain transfer to monomer or polymer and by disproportionation. Some of the possible chain end groups are... 

Glass-Transition Temperature. The T of PVP is sensitive to residual moisture (75) and unreacted monomer. It is even sensitive to how the polymer was prepared, suggesting that MWD, branching, and cross-linking may play a part (76). Polymers presumably with the same molecular weight prepared by bulk polymerization exhibit lower T s compared to samples prepared by aqueous solution polymerization, lending credence to an example, in this case, of branching caused by chain-transfer to monomer. 

Many emulsion polymerizations can be described by so-called zero-one kinetics. These systems are characterized by particle sizes that are sufficiently small dial entry of a radical into a particle already containing a propagating radical always causes instantaneous termination. Thus, a particle may contain either zero or one propagating radical. The value of n will usually be less than 0.4. In these systems, radical-radical termination is by definition not rate determining. Rates of polymerization are determined by the rates or particle entry and exit rather than by rates of initiation and termination. The main mechanism for exit is thought to be chain transfer to monomer. It follows that radical-radical termination, when it occurs in the particle phase, will usually be between a short species (one that lias just entered) and a long species. 

The key requirements for using Si-Cl functional initiators to produce polymers carrying Si Cl termini by carbenium ion polymerization are i) Si-Cl should be inert toward aUcylaluminum coinitiators, ii) Si-Cl should not react with propagating carbenium ions, in) chain transfer to monomer should be negligible so as to end up with one Si-Cl head-group per polymer chain. 

Effects of solvent polarity, counter-anion nucleophilidty, temperature, and monomer concentration on the carbenium ion polymerization chemistry have been extensively studied29,36 38,49. Based on previous knowledge26"29 Me3Al was chosen because with this coinitiator undesired chain transfer to monomer processes are absent. Preliminary experiments showed that Et3Al coinitiator did not yield PaMeSt, possibly because the nuc-leophilicity of the counter-anion Et3AlQe is too high and thus termination by hydrida-tion is faster than propagation36. ... 

Assuming that the number average degree of polymerization (DP ) is determined by chain transfer to monomer and assuming unimolecular termination relative to propagation (i.e., chain breaking due to solvent, polymer, impurities are absent), the simple Mayo equation55 ... 

HSi(CH3)2CH2CH29)CH2Cl/Me3Al system is strong evidence for molecular weight control by termination, i.e., for polymerization without chain transfer to monomer. The proposition is further substantiated by results of model experiments of Kennedy et al.26 and H1 NMR analysis of HSi-PEB to be discussed in Sect. IH.B.4.C. 

In sum, a relation of counteranion nucleophilicity and the molecular weight in isobutylene polymerization is discovered, according to which an increase in G nucleophility leads to an increase in the rate of termination but a decrease in the rate of chain transfer to monomer. Thus, an increase in G6 nucleophilicity leads to increased termination and hence decreased molecular weight for systems in which termination is molecular weight governing. Similarly, it leads to a decrease in rate of transfer and hence to an increase in molecular weights for systems in which chain transfer controls molecular weight. The nucleophilicity of G is determined by the... 

There is less information available in the scientific literature on the influence of forced oscillations in the control variables in polymerization reactions. A decade ago two independent theoretical studies appeared which considered the effect of periodic operation on a free radically initiated chain reaction in a well mixed isothermal reactor. Ray (11) examined a reaction mechanism with and without chain transfer to monomer. 

Model Description of the Bulk Polymerization of MMA with Chain Transfer to Monomer... 

Figures 1-4 show that when polymerizations were carried out at low concentrations of initiator and/or at low temperatures, the agreement between the model predictions and the experimental data is not so good. This is due to the fact that under those reaction conditions where R is low a large kinetic chain length is expected. When this is so, chain transfer to monomer becomes a reaction to be taken into account, since it markedly influences the chain length of the polymer being formed. A decrease in the instantaneous degree of polymerization, due to chain transfer to monomer, will reduce the concentration of the entangled radicals and, consequently, a decrease in the rate of polymerization is expected.

The authors concluded that the side reactions normally observed in amine-initiated NCA polymerizations are simply a consequence of impurities. Since the main side reactions in these polymerizations do not involve reaction with adventitious impurities such as water, but instead reactions with monomer, solvent, or polymer (i.e., termination by reaction of the amine-end with an ester side chain, attack of DMF by the amine-end, or chain transfer to monomer) [11, 12], this conclusion does not seem to be well justified. It is likely that the role of impurities (e.g., water) in these polymerizations is very complex. A possible explanation for the polymerization control observed under high vacuum is that the impurities act to catalyze side reactions with monomer, polymer, or solvent. In this scenario, it is reasonable to speculate that polar species such as water can bind to monomers or the propagating chain-end and thus influence their reactivity. 

Living" carbocationic polymerizations are most difficult to achieve mainly because of chain transfer to monomer and termination processes both of which frequently occur in carbocationic polymerizations. It has recently been demonstrated (JL) that "quasiliving" polymerization of a-methylstyrene (aMeSt) can be achieved by slow and continuous monomer addition and that the number-average molecular weight (Mn) of PaMeSt increases linearly with the weight of added monomer. A theory for quasiliving polymerizations has been developed (2). 

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