Olefin polymerization, mechanism

The first mechanism was proposed by Baird et al. [189]. The carbocationic species is schematically shown in Scheme IX. The attack of monomer, well known on the carbocationic center of a metal-ion-activated olefin, proceeded in the normal manner for carbocationic polymerization. This mechanism is based on the following two evidences. Alcoholysis of the polymerization system, TiMe3Cp /B(C6F5)3, resulted in the presence of an alkoxy group at an end group, and vinyl ethers and iV-vinylcarbazole were polymerized by using the same system. 

Generally speaking, a monomer with electron-releasing groups will be more rapidly polymerized by cationic initiators. Anionic initiators polymerize olefins with electron-withdrawing groups more rapidly. A more sensitive test of the nature of the reaction is the behavior of a mixture of two such monomers in copolymerization in which they compete for the intermediate. This will be discussed in more detail in Chapter XII on polar versus radical mechanisms. 

Thus systems that also catalyze olefin metathesis (MoCl5/SnPh4) polymerize alkynes by a metalloacyclobutene mechanism [reaction (0)] °, whereas catalysts (Ti(0-n- 4119)4/AlEts) that polymerize olefins as well as alkynes follow an insertion mechanism [reaction (n)] for alkyne polymerization. 

A solvent dependence of the activity was demonstrated earlier,(refs. 3-10 and was also observed in the present study. This may be due to catalyst solubility. The butene concentration as a function of time closely followed the general empirical relationship ln(monomer)t A exp(-Bt) + C. We ascribe no mechanistic interpretation to this observation, but note, however, that similar formulae have been derived from models of olefin polymerization reaction mechanisms. 

It might be noted that most (not all) alkenes are polymerizable by the chain mechanism involving free-radical intermediates, whereas the carbonyl group is generally not polymerized by the free-radical mechanism. Carbonyl groups and some carbon-carbon double bonds are polymerized by ionic mechanisms. Monomers display far more specificity where the ionic mechanism is involved than with the free-radical mechanism. For example, acrylamide will polymerize through an anionic intermediate but not a cationic one, A -vinyl pyrrolidones by cationic but not anionic intermediates, and halogenated olefins by neither ionic species. In all of these cases free-radical polymerization is possible. 

This reaction proceeds through a chain mechanism. Free-radical additions to 1-butene, as in the case of HBr, RSH, and H2S to other olefins (19—21), can be expected to yield terminally substituted derivatives. Some polymerization reactions are also free-radical reactions. 

Monomers for manufacture of butyl mbber are 2-methylpropene [115-11-7] (isobutylene) and 2-methyl-l.3-butadiene [78-79-5] (isoprene) (see Olefins). Polybutenes are copolymers of isobutylene and / -butenes from mixed-C olefin-containing streams. For the production of high mol wt butyl mbber, isobutylene must be of >99.5 wt % purity, and isoprene of >98 wt % purity is used. Water and oxygenated organic compounds iaterfere with the cationic polymerization mechanism, and are minimized by feed purification systems. 

The radical mechanism is supported by a number of findings for instance, when the electrolysis is carried out in the presence of an olefin, the radicals add to the olefinic double bond styrene does polymerize under those conditions. Side products can be formed by further oxidation of the alkyl radical 2 to an intermediate carbenium ion 5, which then can react with water to yield an alcohol 6, or with an alcohol to yield an ether 7 ... 

Metathesis is a catalyzed reaction that converts two olefin molecules into two different olefins. It is an important reaction for which many mechanistic approaches have been proposed by scientists working in the fields of homogenous catalysis and polymerization. One approach is the formation of a fluxional five-membered metallocycle. The intermediate can give back the starting material or the metathetic products via a concerted mechanism ... 

Carrick, W. L. The Mechanism of Olefin Polymerization by Ziegler-Natta Catalysts. VoL 12, pp. 65-86. 

In studying two-component polymerization catalysts, beginning with Feldman and Perry (161), a radioactive label was introduced into the growing polymer chain by quenching the polymerization with tritiated alcohols. The use of these quenching agents is based on the concept of the anionic coordination mechanism of olefin polymerization occurring... 

Despite the difference in composition of various olefin polymerization catalysts the problems of the mechanism of their action have much in common. The difference between one-component and traditional Ziegler-Natta two-component catalysts seems to exist only at the stage of genesis of the propagation centers, while the mechanism of the formation of a polymer chain on the propagation center formed has many common basic features for all the catalytic systems based on transition metal compounds. 

It should be noted that, similarly to olefin, the insertion of carbon monoxide in the active bond in the propagation centers of polymerization catalysts also follows the coordination mechanism 175). The insertion of carbon monoxide into the active bond was not feasible when a vacant coordination site of the metal ion had been occupied by phosphine. 

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