Polymerization disproportionation

Average degree of polymerization n. DP Average degree of polymerization is equal to or twice for a chain growth polymerization, disproportionation or combination. Coleman MM, Strauss S (1998) Fundamentals of polymer science an introductory text. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL. 

In addition to the reactions described above, several side reactions occur in the refinery alkylation process that reduce the quality of alkylate and are highly undesirable. The most important of these are polymerization, disproportionation, cracking, and self-alkylation. They are described in more detail in Example 6.10.1 [see also Corma and Martinez (1993), and Albright (2003, 2009) for further information]. 

Important undesired side reactions of refinery alkylation are polymerization, disproportionation, cracking, and self-alkylation. 

Inhibitors slow or stop polymerization by reacting with the initiator or the growing polymer chain. The free radical formed from an inhibitor must be sufficiently unreactive that it does not function as a chain-transfer agent and begin another growing chain. Benzoquinone is a typical free-radical chain inhibitor. The resonance-stabilized free radical usually dimerizes or disproportionates to produce inert products and end the chain process. 

Tlie formation of initiator radicals is not the only process that determines the concentration of free radicals in a polymerization system. Polymer propagation itself does not change the radical concentration it merely changes one radical to another. Termination steps also occur, however, and these remove radicals from the system. We shall discuss combination and disproportionation reactions as modes of termination. 

The assumption that k values are constant over the entire duration of the reaction breaks down for termination reactions in bulk polymerizations. Here, as in Sec. 5.2, we can consider the termination process—whether by combination or disproportionation to depend on the rates at which polymer molecules can diffuse into (characterized by kj) or out of (characterized by k ) the same solvent cage and the rate at which chemical reaction between them (characterized by kj.) occurs in that cage. In Chap. 5 we saw that two limiting cases of Eq. (5.8) could be readily identified ... 

The degree of polymerization in Eq. (6.41) can be replaced with the kinetic chain length, and the resulting expression simplified. To proceed, however, we must choose between the possibilities described by Eqs. (6.34) and (6.35). Assuming termination by disproportionation, we replace n, by v, using Eq. (6.37) ... 

The free-radical polymerization of methacrylic monomers follows a classical chain mechanism in which the chain-propagation step entails the head-to-taH growth of the polymeric free radical by attack on the double bond of the monomer. Chain termination can occur by either combination or disproportionation, depending on the conditions of the process (36). 

Phosphorus(III) Oxide. Phosphoms(III) oxide [12440-00-5] the anhydride of phosphonic acid, is formed along with by-products such as phosphoms pentoxide and red phosphoms when phosphoms is burned with less than stoichiometric amounts of oxygen (62). Phosphoms(III) oxide is a poisonous, white, wax-like, crystalline material, which has a melting point of 23.8°C and a boiling point of 175.3°C. When added to hot water, phosphoms(III) oxide reacts violentiy and forms phosphine, phosphoric acid, and red phosphoms. Even in cold water, disproportionation maybe observed if the oxide is not well agitated, resulting in the formation of phosphoric acid and yellow or orange poorly defined polymeric lower oxides of phosphoms (LOOP). 

The minimum polydispersity index from a free-radical polymerization is 1.5 if termination is by combination, or 2.0 if chains ate terminated by disproportionation and/or transfer. Changes in concentrations and temperature during the reaction can lead to much greater polydispersities, however. These concepts of polymerization reaction engineering have been introduced in more detail elsewhere (6). 

Eatty acid soap was first used for ESBR. Its scarcity prompted the investigation of rosin acids from gum and wood as substitutes (1). The discovery of the disproportionation of rosin allowed rosin acid soaps to overcome the polymerization inhibition of untreated rosin acids. Rosin acid soaps gave the added benefit of tack to the finished polymer. In the 1990s, both fatty acid and rosin acid soaps, mainly derived from tall oil, are used in ESBR. 

The main reason that the decreases as the polymerization temperature increases is the increase in the initiation and termination reactions, which leads to a decrease in the kinetic chain length (Fig. 17). At low temperature, the main termination mechanism is polystyryl radical coupling, but as the temperature increases, radical disproportionation becomes increasingly important. Termination by coupling results in higher PS than any of the other termination modes. 

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... 

Continuous polymerization in a staged series of reactors is a variation of this process (82). In one example, a mixture of chloroprene, 2,3-dichloro-l,3-butadiene, dodecyl mercaptan, and phenothiazine (15 ppm) is fed to the first of a cascade of 7 reactors together with a water solution containing disproportionated potassium abietate, potassium hydroxide, and formamidine sulfinic acid catalyst. Residence time in each reactor is 25 min at 45°C for a total conversion of 66%. Potassium ion is used in place of sodium to minimize coagulum formation. In other examples, it was judged best to feed catalyst to each reactor in the cascade (83). 

The most important single reactions produced in the carboxyl functionality of the resin acids are salt formation, Diels-Alder additions, and esterification. Other reactions, such as disproportionation and polymerization, are less important. For some specific applications, rosins are subjected to a combination of these reactions. 

In general, the activation energies for both cationic and anionic polymerization are small. For this reason, low-temperature conditions are normally used to reduce side reactions. Low temperatures also minimize chain transfer reactions. These reactions produce low-molecular weight polymers by disproportionation of the propagating polymer ... 

The application of these catalysts in the initial state (without any special treatment of the surface organometallic complexes of such cata-lysts) for ethylene polymerization has been described above. The catalysts formed by the reaction of 7r-allyl compounds with Si02 and AUOj were found to be active in the polymerization of butadiene as well (8, 142). The stereospecificity of the supported catalyst differed from that of the initial ir-allyl compounds. n-Allyl complexes of Mo and W supported on silica were found to be active in olefin disproportionation (142a). 

ZrCl2 prepared by disproportionation of ZrCl3 without ball-milling was also active (about 80 g C2H4/g ZrCl2 hr at 20 kg/cm2 and 75°C) in ethylene polymerization (157, 159). 

In the period 1910-1950 many contributed to the development of free-radical polymerization.1 The basic mechanism as we know it today (Scheme 1.1), was laid out in the 1940s and 50s.7 9 The essential features of this mechanism are initiation and propagation steps, which involve radicals adding to the less substituted end of the double bond ("tail addition"), and a termination step, which involves disproportionation or combination between two growing chains. 

Another concern, is the potential reactivity of 10 as a transfer agent under polymerization conditions (see 3.3.1.1.4).103 Tetramethylsuccinonitrile (9) appears to be essentially inert under polymerization conditions. However, the compound is reported to be toxic and may be a problem in polymers used in food contact applications.1" 30 Methacrylonitrile (MAN) formed by disproportionation readily copolymerizes.7"34 The copolymerized MAN may affect the thermal stability of polymers. A suggestion103 that copolymerized MAN may be a "weak link" in PS initiated with AIBN has been disputed.14... 

For /-butyl peresters there is also a variation in efficiency in the series where R is primary secondary>tertiary. The efficiency of /-butyl peroxypentanoate in initiating high pressure ethylene polymerization is >90%, that of /-butyl peroxy-2-ethylhexanoate ca 60% and that of/-butyl peroxypivalate ca 40%.196 Inefficiency is due to cage reaction and the main cage process in the case where R is secondary or tertiary is disproportionation with /-butoxy radicals to form /-butanol and an olefin.196... 

The most important mechanism for the decay of propagating species in radical polymerization is radical-radical reaction by combination or disproportionation as shown in Scheme 5.1. This process is sometimes simply referred to as bimolecular termination. However, this term is misleading since most chain termination processes are bimolecular reactions. 

The relative importance of combination and disproportionation in relevant model systems and in polymerizations of some common monomers is considered in Sections 5,2.2.1 and 5.2.2.2 respectively. The significance of the termination mechanism on the course of polymerization and on the properties of polymers is discussed briefly in Section 5.2.2 and is further discussed in Section 8.2. 

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