Styrene propagation

Propagation. Styrene monomers are added by insertion between the graphite surface and the activated molecule and the radical ends of two neighbouring chains are coupled. Note that the end of the chain remains fixed to the graphite surface. 

In a copolymerization of styrene and methyl methacrylate under CCT conditions, the fraction of unsaturated styrene end groups is proportional to the fraction of styrene in the monomer feed.368 Due to the stability of styrene radicals, the relative fraction of propagating styrene radicals is large over the whole range of monomer feed compositions.432 433 This feature complicates the determination of radical reactivity ratios but may be compensated for by measuring the average transfer rate coefficient as a function of monomer feed composition. 

The reaction scheme 1 depicts a radical chain process. Anionic and cationic processes are similar, but with a full negative (-) or positive (+) charged carbon initiating center. In the initiation step, the monomers are activated by the initiators. During propagation, styrene monomer units are added to the growing polymer chains contributing to the macromolecular properties of the polymers. 

The Mw/Mn values observed for the copolymers tend to increase with styrene content. This may reflect the fact that termination by disproportionation of propagating methacrylate radicals may be significant when the MMA content of the copolymerization mixture is high but that termination by combination of propagating styrene radicals with other propagating styrene radicals or with propagating MMA radicals will become of increasing importance as the styrene content of the polymerization mixtures increases. 

FIGURE 1111 Cham propagation in polymerization of styrene The growing polymer chain has a free radical site at the benzylic carbon It adds to a molecule of styrene to extend the chain by one styrene unit The new polymer chain is also a benzylic radical it attacks another molecule of styrene and the process repeats over and over again... 

Inhibitors are characterized by inhibition constants which are defined as the ratio of the rate constant for transfer to inhibitor to the propagation constant for the monomer in analogy with Eq. (6.87) for chain transfer constants. For styrene at 50°C the inhibition constant of p-benzoquinone is 518, and that for O2 is 1.5 X 10. The Polymer Handbook (Ref. 3) is an excellent source for these and most other rate constants discussed in this chapter. 

Note that this inquiry into copolymer propagation rates also increases our understanding of the differences in free-radical homopolymerization rates. It will be recalled that in Sec. 6.1 a discussion of this aspect of homopolymerization was deferred until copolymerization was introduced. The trends under consideration enable us to make some sense out of the rate constants for propagation in free-radical homopolymerization as well. For example, in Table 6.4 we see that kp values at 60°C for vinyl acetate and styrene are 2300 and 165 liter mol sec respectively. The relative magnitude of these constants can be understod in terms of the sequence above. 

In these equations I is the initiator and I- is the radical intermediate, M is a vinyl monomer, I—M- is an initial monomer radical, I—M M- is a propagating polymer radical, and and are polymer end groups that result from termination by disproportionation. Common vinyl monomers that can be homo-or copolymeri2ed by radical initiation include ethylene, butadiene, styrene, vinyl chloride, vinyl acetate, acrylic and methacrylic acid esters, acrylonitrile, A/-vinylirnida2ole, A/-vinyl-2-pyrrohdinone, and others (2). 

AlkyUithium compounds are primarily used as initiators for polymerizations of styrenes and dienes (52). These initiators are too reactive for alkyl methacrylates and vinylpyridines. / -ButyUithium [109-72-8] is used commercially to initiate anionic homopolymerization and copolymerization of butadiene, isoprene, and styrene with linear and branched stmctures. Because of the high degree of association (hexameric), -butyIUthium-initiated polymerizations are often effected at elevated temperatures (>50° C) to increase the rate of initiation relative to propagation and thus to obtain polymers with narrower molecular weight distributions (53). Hydrocarbon solutions of this initiator are quite stable at room temperature for extended periods of time the rate of decomposition per month is 0.06% at 20°C (39). 

As the quinone stabilizer is consumed, the peroxy radicals initiate the addition chain propagation reactions through the formation of styryl radicals. In dilute solutions, the reaction between styrene and fumarate ester foUows an alternating sequence. However, in concentrated resin solutions, the alternating addition reaction is impeded at the onset of the physical gel. The Hquid resin forms an intractable gel when only 2% of the fumarate unsaturation is cross-linked with styrene. The gel is initiated through small micelles (12) that form the nuclei for the expansion of the cross-linked network. 

Anionic Polymerization. Addition polymerization may also be initiated and propagated by anions (23—26), eg, in the polymerization of styrene with -butyUithium. The LL gegen ion, held electrostatically in... 

The requirements for a polymerisation to be truly living are that the propagating chain ends must not terminate during polymerisation. If the initiation, propagation, and termination steps are sequential, ie, all of the chains are initiated and then propagate at the same time without any termination, then monodisperse (ie, = 1.0) polymer is produced. In general, anionic polymerisation is the only mechanism that yields truly living styrene... 

Most of the LFRP research ia the 1990s is focused on the use of nitroxides as the stable free radical. The main problems associated with nitroxide-mediated styrene polymerizations are slow polymerization rate and the iaability to make high molecular weight narrow-polydispersity PS. This iaability is likely to be the result of side reactions of the living end lea ding to termination rather than propagation (183). The polymerization rate can be accelerated by the addition of acids to the process (184). The mechanism of the accelerative effect of the acid is not certain. 

The thiol ( -dodecyl mercaptan) used ia this recipe played a prominent role ia the quaUty control of the product. Such thiols are known as chain-transfer agents and help control the molecular weight of the SBR by means of the foUowiag reaction where M = monomer, eg, butadiene or styrene R(M) = growing free-radical chain k = propagation-rate constant = transfer-rate constant and k = initiation-rate constant. 

The use of an unsaturated anionic initiator—such as potassium p-vinyl benzoxide—is possible for the ring opening polymerization of oxirane [43]. Although initiation is generally heterogenous, the polymers exhibit the molecular weight expected and a low polydispersity. In this case, the styrene type unsaturation at chain end cannot get involved in the process, as the propagating sites are oxanions. 

Anionic polymerization is better for vinyl monomers with electron withdrawing groups that stabilize the intermediates. Typical monomers best polymerized by anionic initiators include acrylonitrile, styrene, and butadiene. As with cationic polymerization, a counter ion is present with the propagating chain. The propagation and the termination steps are similar to cationic polymerization. 

There are some indications that the situation described above has been realized, at least partially, in the system styrene-methyl methacrylate polymerized by metallic lithium.29 29b It is known51 that in a 50-50 mixture of styrene and methyl methacrylate radical polymerization yields a product of approximately the same composition as the feed. On the other hand, a product containing only a few per cent of styrene is formed in a polymerization proceeding by an anionic mechanism. Since the polymer obtained in the 50-50 mixture of styrene and methyl methacrylate polymerized with metallic lithium had apparently an intermediate composition, it has been suggested that this is a block polymer obtained in a reaction discussed above. Further evidence favoring this mechanism is provided by the fact that under identical conditions only pure poly-methyl methacrylate is formed if the polymerization is initiated by butyl lithium and not by lithium dispersion. This proves that incorporation of styrene is due to a different initiation and not propagation. 

The IR calibration line shown in Fig. 36 may not be valid with the products formed in these series of experiments since in this case the densities and formula weight of the products may not be assumed the same as that of 7, which was used to construct the calibration line. Thus only H1 NMR spectroscopy has been employed to explore the stability of Si-H bonds in the presence of carbenium ions simulating propagating carbenium ions of isobutylene and styrene. 

The propagating species involved in the polymerization of cyclic formal seem to resemble carbocations, and random copolymers are formed in the copolymerization of cyclic formals with styrene. For the copolymerization of DOL with styrene, the DOL-St cross-sequence was estimated, by NMR or by chemical methods, from the decrease of the formal unit in the copolymer and the formation of nearly random copolymer was confirmed132. ... 

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