Polystyrene weight distribution

Three polystyrene samples of narrow molecular weight distribution were investigatedf for their retention in GPC columns in which the average particle size of the packing was varied. In all instances the peaks were well resolved. The following results were obtained ... 

Fig. 4. Molecular weight distribution curves for representative polystyrenes.

Polystyrene produced by free-radical polymerisation techniques is part syndio-tactic and part atactic in structure and therefore amorphous. In 1955 Natta and his co-workers reported the preparation of substantially isotactic polystyrene using aluminium alkyl-titanium halide catalyst complexes. Similar systems were also patented by Ziegler at about the same time. The use of n-butyl-lithium as a catalyst has been described. Whereas at room temperature atactic polymers are produced, polymerisation at -30°C leads to isotactic polymer, with a narrow molecular weight distribution. 

ASTM D 5296 - 92 (1994). Standard Test Method for Molecular Weight Averages and Moleeular Weight Distribution of Polystyrene by High Performance Size-Exclusion Chromatography. Annual Book of ASTM Standards, Vol.08.03, pp. 419-431. 

Determinarion of MW and MWD by SEC using commercial narrow molecular weight distribution polystyrene as calibration standards is an ASTM-D5296 standard method for polystyrene (11). However, no data on precision are included in the 1997 edition of the ASTM method. In the ASTM-D3536 method for gel-permeation chromatography from seven replicates, the M of a polystyrene is 263,000 30,000 (11.4%) for a single determination within the 95% confidence level (12). A relative standard deviation of 3.9% was reported for a cooperative determination of of polystyrene by SEC (7). In another cooperative study, a 11.3% relative standard deviation in M, of polystyrene by GPC was reported (13). 

This relation was verified experimentally7 49 and it was shown that the degree of polymerization in a system containing "living polymers is independent of concentrations of initiator or monomer and of temperature. Furthermore, if all the growing centers were formed in a time much shorter than the time of polymerization, a Poisson molecular weight distribution would be obtained. Indeed, by using this technique samples of polystyrene were obtained for which MjMn = 1.04. 

Furusawa and Yamamoto [16] studied the adsorption process of polystyrene samples (M ranging from 16700 to 2xl06) with narrow molecular weight distribution (Mw/M = 1.01-1.07) at the -conditions (cyclohexane, 35 °C). Controlled pore glass with pore diameter of 1000 A was used as an adsorbent. 

The properties of a polymer depend not only on its gross chemical composition but also on its molecular weight distribution, copolymer composition distribution, branch length distribution, and so on. The same monomer(s) can be converted to widely differing polymers depending on the polymerization mechanism and reactor type. This is an example of product by process, and no single product is best for all applications. Thus, there are several commercial varieties each of polyethylene, polystyrene, and polyvinyl chloride that are made by distinctly different processes. 

Fig. 60.—Molecular weight distribution for thermally polymerized polystyrene as established by fractionation. (Results of Merz and Raetz. o)...

Since polystyrene SRM 706 is supposedly a linear polymer sample, g is not expected to deviate strongly from unity. Inspection of Table li shows that g values cluster about unity throughout most of the SRM 706 molecular weight distribution. 

Polystyrene standards used were narrow molecular weight distribution sample produced by anionic polymerization and available from Pressure Chemical Co. Also sample NBS7C from the National Bureau of Standards was used. The sample of poly n-butyl methacrylate was obtained from Aldrich Chemical. It was produced by free radici polymerization with an Mw of 320,(XK) and an Mn of 73,500 (Cat. No. 18,153-6). 

Off-line coupling of HPLC with FD-MS has been used by several authors [118-121] for the determination of oligomers, oligomeric antioxidants (such as poly-TMDQ), ozonation and vulcanisation products. Pausch [122] reported on rubbers, cyclic polyurethane oligomers, as well as on the determination of the molecular weight distribution (up to 5300 Da) and oligomer analysis of polystyrene. Also the components of an aniline-acetone resin were deduced from FD-MS molecular weights [122]. 

The molecular weight distributions were determined only in terms of the polystyrene equivalent from the polystyrene calibration of the GPC columns. This can only be regarded as semiquantitative, as the method determines only the relative hydrodynamic volumes. If the polysilane chain was significantly stiffer than polystyrene, the molecular weights would be estimated too high. If the chains are... 

The molecular weight distribution (MWD) of the linear polyurethanes were determined by GPC. The solvent used was THF and the instrument calibrated by narrow MWD polystyrenes. Polymer BPUla... 

A radical initiator based on the oxidation adduct of an alkyl-9-BBN (47) has been utilized to produce poly(methylmethacrylate) (48) (Fig. 31) from methylmethacrylate monomer by a living anionic polymerization route that does not require the mediation of a metal catalyst. The relatively broad molecular weight distribution (PDI = (MJM ) 2.5) compared with those in living anionic polymerization cases was attributed to the slow initiation of the polymerization.69 A similar radical polymerization route aided by 47 was utilized in the synthesis of functionalized syndiotactic polystyrene (PS) polymers by the copolymerization of styrene.70 The borane groups in the functionalized syndiotactic polystyrenes were transformed into free-radical initiators for the in situ free-radical graft polymerization to prepare s-PS-g-PMMA graft copolymers. 

The polymerization was carried out in THF under the conditions of high vacuum or argon atmosphere with a catalytic amount of alkyllithium as an initiator. Anionic polymerization of 3a with n-BuLi in THF followed by quenching with ethanol afforded polymer 6 in 56 % yield. The molecular weight distribution of the polymer was determined by gel permeation chromatography (GPC), calibrated by polystyrene standards, with chlorofrom as eluent Mn = 6.1xl0"4, Mw/Mn = 1.3. 

Polystyrene/polyethylene oxide dendrimers were prepared by ATRP using tri- and tetra (bromomethyl) benzene as the initiators [207]. Each bromine end-group of the resulting stars was transformed first to two - OH groups and subsequently to potassium alcholate, as shown in Scheme 114. These - OK sites served to initiate the anionic polymerization of EO. The synthesized dendritic copolymers were found to display monomodal and narrow molecular weight distribution. 

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