Propagating species

Cationic ring-opening polymerization is the only polymerization mechanism available to tetrahydrofuran (5,6,8). The propagating species is a tertiary oxonium ion associated with a negatively charged counterion ... 

Kinetics. Details of the kinetics of polymerization of THF have been reviewed (6,148). There are five main conclusions. (/) Macroions are the principal propagating species in all systems. (2) With stable complex anions, such as PF , SbF , and AsF , the polymerization is living under normal polymerization conditions. When initia tion is fast, kinetics of polymerizations in bulk can be closely approximated by equation 2, where/ is the specific rate constant of propagation /is time [I q is the initiator concentration at t = 0 and [M q, [M and [M are the monomer concentrations at t = 0, at equiHbrium, and at time /, respectively. 

Free-Radical Addition. In free-radical addition polymerisation, the propagating species is a free radical. The free radicals, R-, ate most commonly generated by the thermal decomposition of a peroxide or aso initiator, 1 (see Initiators, free-RADICAl) ... 

Ah these polymerizations proceed only in the absence of oxygen or water, which react with the highly reactive propagating species. Polymerization is usuahy carried out in an inert, hydrocarbon solvent and under a nitrogen blanket. Under these conditions, polymers with narrow molecular-weight distributions and precise molecular weights can be produced in stoichiometric amounts. 

Much of the CI2O manufactured industrially is used to make hypochlorites, particularly Ca(OCl)2, and it is an effective bleach for wood-pulp and textiles. CI2O is also used to prepare chloroisocyanurates (p. 324) and chlorinated solvents (via mixed chain reactions in which Cl and OCl are the chain-propagating species).Its reactions with inorganic reagents are summarized in the scheme opposite. 

In termination, unsaturated and saturated ends are formed when the propagating species undergo disproportionation, head-to-head linkages when they combine, and other functional groups may be introduced by reactions with inhibitors or transfer agents (Scheme 1.2). In-chain defect structures (within the polymer molecule) can also arise by copolymerization of the unsaturated byproducts of initiation or termination. 

The basic Hammett scheme often does not offer a perfect correlation and a number of variants on this scheme have been proposed to better explain reactivities in radical reactions.-0 However, none of these has achieved widespread acceptance. It should also be noted that linear free energy relationships are the basis of the Q-e and Patterns of Reactivity schemes for understanding reactivities of propagating species in chain transfer and copolymerization. 

The facile and reversible reaction of propagating species with transition metal halide complexes to form a polymeric halo-compound is one of the key steps in atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP, see Section 9.4). 

The reaction of radicals with nitroxides is reversible. 09 This means that the highest temperature that the technique can reasonably be employed at is ca 80 °C for tertiary propagating species and ca 120 °C for secondary propagating species.22 These maximum temperatures are only guidelines. The stability of alkoxyamines is also dependent on solvent (polar solvents favor decomposition) and the structure of the trapped species. This chemistry has led to certain alkoxyamines being useful as initiators of living polymerization (Section 9.3.6). At elevated temperatures nitroxides are observed to add to monomer albeit slowly. 3IS 5" 523... 

With 1,3-diene based polymers, greater scope for structural variation is introduced because there arc two double bonds to attack and the propagating species is a delocalized radical with several modes of addi tion possible (see 4.3.2). 

Consideration of data on the reactions for small radicals (Section 2.3) suggest that the primary alkyl radical (H ) is more likely to give head addition than the normal propagaLing species (T-) for three reasons ... 

One contributing factor, which seems to have been largely ignored, is that the ring closed radical (in many cases a primary alkyl radical) is likely to be much more reactive towards double bonds than the allyl radical propagating species. This species will also have a different propensity for degradative chain transfer (a particular problem with allylamines and related monomers - see 6.2.6.4) and other processes which complicate polymerizations of the monoencs. 

Ring-opening provides a thiyl radical propagating species. Although the polymers have a double bond on the backbone there is little or no crosslinking (Scheme 4.34, Scheme 4.35). There is, however, evidence of reversible addition... 

EPR methods that allow a more direct determination of kv have been developed. These enable absolute radical concentrations to be determined as a function of conversion. With especially sensitive instrumentation, this can be done by direct measurement/57 160 An alternative method, applicable at high conversions, involves trapping the propagating species in a frozen matrix361 362 by rapid cooling of the sample to liquid nitrogen temperatures. 

Frequency factors for addition of small radicals to monomers are higher by more than an order of magnitude than those for propagation (Table 4.12). Activation energies are typically lower. However, trends in the data are very similar suggesting that the same factors are important in determining the relative reactivities for both small radicals and propagating species. The same appears to be true with respect to reactivities in copolymerization (Section 73.1.2)/88... 

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. 

Before any chemistry can take place the radical centers of the propagating species must conic into appropriate proximity and it is now generally accepted that the self-reaction of propagating radicals- is a diffusion-controlled process. For this reason there is no single rate constant for termination in radical polymerization. The average rate constant usually quoted is a composite term that depends on the nature of the medium and the chain lengths of the two propagating species. Diffusion mechanisms and other factors that affect the absolute rate constants for termination are discussed in Section 5.2.1.4. 

Even though the absolute rate constant for reactions between propagating species may be determined largely by diffusion, this does not mean that there is no specificity in the termination process or that the activation energies for combination and disproportionation are zero or the same. It simply means that this chemistry is not involved in the rate-determining step of the termination process. 

The relative importance of these mechanisms, and the value of the overall kt, depends on the molecular weight and dispersity of the propagating species, the medium and the degree of conversion. The value of k, is not a constant ... 

Even though the chemical reactions are the same (i.e. combination, disproportionation), the effects of compartmentalization are such that, in emulsion polymerization, particle phase termination rates can be substantially different to those observed in corresponding solution or bulk polymerizations. A critical parameter is n, the average number of propagating species per particle. The value of h depends on the particle size and the rates of entry and exit. 

In conventional radical polymerization, the chain length distribution of propagating species is broad and new short chains are formed continually by initiation. As has been stated above, the population balance means that, termination, most frequently, involves the reaction of a shorter, more mobile, chain with a longer, less mobile, chain. In living radical polymerizations, the chain lengths of most propagating species are similar (i.e. i j) and increase with conversion. Ideally, in ATRP and NMP no new chains are fonned. In practice,... 

A simple model for the propagating species in MAN polymerization is the cyanoisopropyl radical (15). The reactions of these radicals (from AIBN Scheme 5.8) have been extensively studied. In contrast with the analogous esters 8-10 (Section 5.2.2.1.2), combination is by far the dominant process (Table 5.4). 

Transition metal salts trap carbon-centered radicals by electron transfer or by ligand transfer. These reagents often show high specificity for reaction with specific radicals and the rates of trapping may be correlated with the nucleophilicity of the radical (Table 5.6). For example, PS radicals are much more reactive towards ferric chloride than acrylic propagating species."07... 

Other transfer agents which react with propagating species by an addition-fragmentation mechanism include the thionc derivatives (81-83) and RAFT... 

Diallyl monomers find significant use in cyclopolymerization (Section 4.4.1). Transfer to monomer is of greater importance in polymerizations of allyl than it is in diallyl monomers.184 This might, in part, reflect differences in the nature of the propagating species [e.g. a secondary alkyl (115) v.v a primary alkyl radical (116)]. Electronic factors may also play a role,185... 

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