Propagation, active sites

The equation describing the polymerisation rate is simply expressed in terms of the dependence on the concentration of propagation active sites, Cp, and the monomer concentration, [M], where Cp is assumed to be of constant value (dCp /dt = 0), i.e. the polymerisation system is under steady state conditions ... 

Secondary monomer insertions into a nickel-carbon bond and thus the occurrence of an 3-benzyl bond at the propagating active site prevent a chain termination reaction, but, when only primary insertion takes place, chain termination occurs by /1-hydrogen elimination [43] ... 

The propagating active site in olefin polymerizations mediated by group 4 catalysts is the M-C(polymer) bond of a metal-alkyl complex.21-33 Although a few neutral group 4 catalysts, such as complexes 9 (M = Zr, Hf34) and 10,35-39 have been synthesized, almost all effective group 4 complexes are inactive in polymerization if not activated by a suitable co-catalyst. 

The addition polymerization of a vinyl monomer CH2=CHX involves three distinctly different steps. First, the reactive center must be initiated by a suitable reaction to produce a free radical or an anion or cation reaction site. Next, this reactive entity adds consecutive monomer units to propagate the polymer chain. Finally, the active site is capped off, terminating the polymer formation. If one assumes that the polymer produced is truly a high molecular weight substance, the lack of uniformity at the two ends of the chain—arising in one case from the initiation, and in the other from the termination-can be neglected. Accordingly, the overall reaction can be written... 

Polymerization occurs at active sites formed by interaction of the metal alkyl with metal chloride on the surface of the metal chloride crystals. Monomer is chemisorbed at the site, thus accounting for its orientation when added to the chain, and propagation occurs by insertion of the chemisorbed monomer into the metal—chain bond at the active site. The chain thus grows out from the surface (31). Hydrogen is used as a chain-transfer agent. Chain transfer with the metal alkyl also occurs. 

Grafting from An active site generated along a polymer backbone starts to propagate monomer and thus produces branches. 

Monomer A is polymerized initiated with a pair of radicals formed by thermolysis of an active site of macroinitiator. Since growing chain A propagates from the residual segment of the initiator, polymer A thus formed retains unreacted active sites in the chain end. 

Chain polymerization involves three steps. To start the reaction, a catalyst that can generate an active site, such as a free radical (R ), is used. In the initiation step, the radical adds to the double bond, and the radical site is moved to the end carbon. This new radical reacts with another molecule to give a larger radical, and the propagation reaction is imderway. Usually, the number of monomers in the chain is greater than 1000. In the above formulae. 

MHI possess at least two different polymerization initiating sites. The identical sites are selective for a particular class of monomers, and thus the resulting ji-star consists of chemically different arms. In order to obtain well-defined //-stars, these identical active sites should have equal reactivity and furthermore, initiation should be faster than propagation. It is not always possible to achieve these requirements since differentiation in the topology of... 

Main group organometallic polymerization catalysts, particularly of groups 1 and 2, generally operate via anionic mechanisms, but the similarities with truly coordinative initiators justify their inclusion here. Both anionic and coordinative polymerization mechanisms are believed to involve enolate active sites, (Scheme 6), with the propagation step akin to a 1,4-Michael addition reaction. 

Improved control was observed, however, upon addition of benzyl alcohol to the dinuclear complexes.887 X-ray crystallography revealed that whereas (296) simply binds the alcohol, (297) reacts to form a trinuclear species bearing four terminal alkoxides. The resultant cluster, (298), polymerizes rac-LA in a relatively controlled manner (Mw/Mn=1.15) up to 70% conversion thereafter GPC traces become bimodal as transesterification becomes increasingly prevalent. NMR spectroscopy demonstrates that the PLA bears BnO end-groups and the number of active sites was determined to be 2.5 0.2. When CL is initiated by (298) only 1.5 alkoxides are active and kinetic analysis suggests that the propagation mechanisms for the two monomers are different, the rate law being first order in LA, but zero order in CL. 

In stepwise reactions, all functional groups take part in bond formation. Their reactivity can be considered independent of the size and shape of the molecules or substructures they are bound to (Flory principle). If such a dependence exists, it is mainly due to steric hindrance. In chain reactions only activated sites participate in bond formation if propagation is fast relative to initiation, transfer and termination, long multifunctional chains are already formed at the beginning of the reaction and they remain dissolved in the monomer. Free-radical copolymerization of mono- and polyunsaturated monomers can serve as an example. The primary chains can carry a number of pendant C=C double bonds... 

This active site counting methodology has been applied to the determination of initiation, propagation and termination rate laws and activation parameters for the polymerization of 1-hexene [141] catalyzed by 91 in toluene solution. 

The active site is a cationic metallocene alkyl generated by reaction of a neutral metallocene formed from reaction with excess MAO or other suitable cocatalysts such as a borane Lewis acid. This sequence is shown in Figure 5.1 employing MAO with ethylene to form PE. Initiation and propagation occur through pre-coordination and insertion of the ethylene into the alkyl group polymer chain. Here, termination occurs through beta-hydride elimination... 

The driving force for isoselective propagation results from steric and electrostatic interactions between the substituent of the incoming monomer and the ligands of the transition metal. The chirality of the active site dictates that monomer coordinate to the transition metal vacancy primarily through one of the two enantiofaces. Actives sites XXI and XXII each yield isotactic polymer molecules through nearly exclusive coordination with the re and si monomer enantioface, respectively, or vice versa. That is, we may not know which enantio-face will coordinate with XXI and which enantioface with XXII, but it is clear that only one of the enantiofaces will coordinate with XXI while the opposite enantioface will coordinate with XXn. This is the catalyst (initiator) site control or enantiomorphic site control model for isoselective polymerization. 

---