Polymerization substituted styrenes

With the improvement of refining and purification techniques, many pure olefinic monomers are available for polymerization. Under Lewis acid polymerization, such as with boron trifluoride, very light colored resins are routinely produced. These resins are based on monomers such as styrene, a-methylstryene, and vinyltoluene (mixed meta- and i ra-methylstyrene). More recently, purified i ra-methylstyrene has become commercially available and is used in resin synthesis. Low molecular weight thermoplastic resins produced from pure styrene have been available since the mid-1940s resins obtained from substituted styrenes are more recent. 

Thermoplastic resins produced from pure monomers such as styrene, alkyl-substituted styrenes, and isobutylene are produced commercially. An advantage of these resins is the fact that they are typically lighter in color than Gardner 1 (water-white) without being hydrogenated. Among the earliest resins in this category were those made from styrene and sold as Piccolastic. Styrene and alkyl-substituted styrenes such as a-methylstyrene are very reactive toward Friedel-Crafts polymerization catalysts. 

Various substituted styrenes have been also polymerized by NMP. These include 1 03-1 07, p-chloromethylstyrene (108), p-halostyrenes, and p-aceloxystyrene. Vinyl pyridines (e.g. 109) are amenable to NMP21 and may be quaternized post-polymerization to provide water-soluble polymers. 

Influence of Structure on the Cationic Polymerization of Substituted Styrenes... 

Substituted styrenes are often used for investigating influences of structure, solvent and initiators on the cationic polymerization 1,2). Under constant outer conditions,... 

When one compares the brutto polymerization rate constants, a measure of the reactivity of monomers during cationic homopolymerizations is obtained. It was found for p-substituted styrenes that lg kBr increased parallel to the reactivity, which the monomers show versus a constant acceptor 93). The reactivity graduation of the cationic chain ends is apparently overcomed by the structural influence on the monomers during the entire process of the cationic polymerization. The quantitative treatment of the substituent influences with the assistance of the LFE principle leads to the following Hammett-type equations for the brutto polymerization rate constants ... 

The data in Table I are not directly comparable, since the viscosity of the 3-isomer was determined in benzene while the others were measured in DMSO. In addition, the first two polymers were prepared in bulk polymerizations, while the polymerization of methyl 3-vinylsalicylate was carried out with the monomer diluted 1 1 with benzene. Thus no certain conclusion can be drawn the data are, however, an indication of possible difficulty in radical polymerization of substituted styrenes bearing a phenol ortho to the vinyl group. 

Each of the derivatives may be regarded as a substituted styrene, and classical styrene syntheses have been employed. Radical polymerization of the phenolic monomers (salicylate esters, 2-hydroxybenzophenones and hydroxyphenylbenzotriazoles) proceeds normally with AIBN as initiator, at least when oxygen is carefully excluded. It is expected that polymeric ultraviolet stabilizers, perhaps in combination with conventional stabilizer will make an important contribution to photostabilization technology. 

The effect of the nitrone stmcture on the kinetics of the styrene polymerization has been reported. Of all the nitrones tested, those of the C-PBN type (Fig. 2.29, family 4) are the most efficient regarding polymerization rate, control of molecular weight, and polydispersity. Electrophilic substitution of the phenyl group of PBN by either an electrodonor or an electroacceptor group has only a minor effect on the polymerization kinetics. The polymerization rate is not governed by the thermal polymerization of styrene but by the alkoxyamine formed in situ during the pre-reaction step. The initiation efficiency is, however, very low, consistent with a limited conversion of the nitrone into nitroxide or alkoxyamine. 

Section 4 will deal with catalytic systems whose stereospecificity is controlled principally by the chirality of the closest tertiary carbon atom of the growing chain (chain-end stereocontrol). In Section 4.1 possible mechanisms for chain-end controlled isospecific and syndiospecific propene polymerizations will be reviewed. In Section 4.2 informations relative to the mechanism of chain-end controlled syndiospecific polymerization of styrene and substituted styrenes will be reviewed. In Section 4.3 chain-end controlled mechanisms for the isospecific and syndiospecific cis-1,4 and 1,2 polymerizations of dienes will be presented. 

The protonation of substituted styrenes generally leads to sequential oligomerization and polymerization reactions (3). Only when carefully... 

These copolymers are prepared by the solution free radical polymerization of the electron-poor monomer (substituted maleimide) and the electron-rich monomer (substituted styrene or vinyl ether). Predominantly alternating copolymers result from such polymerizations (IQ). We will report on this unique copolymerization that permits the copolymerization of two double bonds in the presence of a third reactive double bond elsewhere. 

The ability to conduct radical reactions without the use of tin reagents is important. Allylic triflones have been used to conduct allylation reactions on a range of substrates (39) as a replacement for allyltributylstannane (Scheme 28). The main limitation was that unactivated or trisubstituted triflones failed to undergo reactions. In other nontin radical methods, arenesulfonyl halides have been used as functional initiators in the CuCl/4,4 -dinonyl-2, 2 -bipyridine-catalysed living atom-transfer polymerization of styrenes, methacrylates, and acrylates.The kinetics of initiation and propagation were examined with a range of substituted arylsulfonyl halides with initiator efficiency measured at 100%. 

Wullf and Hohn recently described several new stereochemical results (93). They reported the synthesis of a copolymer between a substituted styrene (M ) and methyl methaciylate (M2) having, at least in part, regular. . . M,M M2M MiM2. . . sequences. Polymerization involves the use of a chiral template to which the styrene monomer is loosely bound. After elimination of the template, the polymer shows notable optical activity that must be ascribed to the presence of a chiral stmcture similar to that shown in 53 (here and in other formulas methylene groups are omitted when unnecessaiy for stereochemical information). This constitutes the first stereoregular macromolecular compound having a three monomer unit periodicity. 

Both the initiation step and the propagation step are dependent on the stability of the carbocations. Isobutylene (the first monomer to be commercially polymerized by ionic initiators), vinyl ethers, and styrene have been polymerized by this technique. The order of activity for olefins is Me2C=CH2 > MeCH=CH2 > CH2=CH2, and for para-substituted styrenes the order for the substituents is Me—O > Me > H > Cl. The mechanism is also dependent on the solvent as well as the electrophilicity of the monomer and the nucleophi-licity of the gegenion. Rearrangements may occur in ionic polymerizations. 

The initiation process appears more complicated than described above, although data are not available in more than a few systems. The benzoyl peroxide initiated polymerization of styrene involves considerable substitution of initiator radicals on the benzene ring for polymerizations carried out at high conversions and high initiator concentrations. About one-third of the initiator radicals from t-butyl peroxide abstract hydrogen atoms from the a-methyl groups of methyl methacrylate, while there is no such abstraction for initiator radicals from benzoyl peroxide or AIBN. 

Substituted anilines behave similarly to the phenols, although relatively little data are available. A-phenyl-iV -isopropyl-p-phenylenediamine is an efficient inhibitor in the polymerization of styrene only in the presence of oxygen [Winkler and Nauman, 1988], However, the effectiveness of phenothiazine as an inhibitor in the polymerization of acrylic acid is independent of oxygen [Levy, 1985],... 

Some branching has been detected in the polymerizations of styrene and anethole (P-methyl-p-methoxystyrene), indicating intermolecular aromatic substitution by a propagating carbocation on the aromatic ring of another polymer chain [Hatada et al., 1980 Kennedy and Marechal, 1982]. 

Matyjaszewski, K., Carbocationic Polymerization Styrene and Substituted Styrenes, Chap. 41 in Comprehensive Polymer Science, Vol. 3, G. C. Eastmond, A. Ledwith, S. Russo, and P. Sigwalt, eds., Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1989 Macromol. Symp., 174, 51 (2001). 

The reactivity of monomers with electron-releasing substituents in anionic copolymerization is nil. Correlation of reactivity in copolymerization with structure has been achieved in some studies [Favier et al., 1977 Shima et al., 1962]. The reactivities of various substituted styrenes and methacrylates in anionic polymerization, as well as the reactivities of various vinyl... 

The 9-fluorenyl cation also reacts at the diffusion limit with substituted styrenes, as indicated by the observation that the rate constants are 3 x 10 M s independent of the styrene substituent. The reaction of styrene with the phenethyl cation (71), the first step in the polymerization of styrene (Sty) catalyzed by Brpnsted acids, has also been directly observed (Scheme 1.8). Photoprotonation of styrene... 

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