Propagation ethylene/carbon monoxide

The co-monomers such as vinyl acetate, acrylate esters, or carbon monoxide are fed together with ethylene, or introduced by liquid pumps, into the suction of the secondary compressor. The concentration in the feed of the co-monomer which is required to achieve a certain level of the co-monomer in the resulting polymer depends on the reactivity ratios, ri and r2, which are the ratios of rate constants of chain-propagation reactions [5]. The values for the co-monomers used in the high-pressure process are presented in Table 5.1-3. In the case of vinyl acetate, both reactivity ratios are identical and therefore the composition of the copolymer is the same as that of the feed. The concentration of vinyl acetate, for example, in... 

It should be added, for the sake of correctness, that ethylene and carbon monoxide insertions in initiation and propagation steps, shown in schemes (80) to (83), are preceded by the coordination of ethylene (Figure 2.1) and carbon monoxide (Figure 2.2) respectively ... 

Chain propagation of CO/ethylene copolymerization proceeds by a strictly alternating insertion of CO and olefin monomers in the growing chain. It is safe to assume that double CO insertion does not occur for thermodynamic reasons [Ic]. However, the complete absence of double ethylene insertions is remarkable because ethylene insertion in a Pd-alkyl species must be exothermic by about 20 kcal/mol (84 kJ mol). The observation of strict alternation is the more surprising since the same palladium catalysts also efficiently dimerize ethylene to butenes [25]. The perfect alternation is maintained even in the presence of very low concentrations of carbon monoxide. When starting abatch polymerization at a high ethylene/CO ratio, error-free copolymer is produced until all the CO is consumed then the system starts forming butenes (with some catalyst systems at about twice the rate of copolymerization ). 

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