Radical Additions to Alkenes Polymers

We had a brief introduction to radical reactions in Section 5.3 and said at that time that radicals can add to alkene double bonds, taking one electron from the double bond and leaving one behind to yield a new radical. Let s now look at the process in more detail, focusing on the industrial synthesis of alkene polymers. 

The simplest synthetic polymers are those that result when an alkene is treated with a small amount of a radical as catalyst. Ethylene, for example, yields polyethylene, an enormous alkane that may have up to 200,000 monomer units incorporated into a gigantic hydrocarbon chain. Approximately 14 million tons per year of polyethylene is manufactured in the United States alone. 

Historically, ethylene potymerization was carried out at high pressure (1000-3000 atm) and high temperature (100-250 °C) in the presence of a catalyst such as benzoyl peroxide, although other catalysts and reaction conditions are now more often used. The key step is the addition of a radical to the ethylene double bond, a reaction similar in many respects to what takes place in the addition of an electrophile. In writing the mechanism, recall that a curved half-arrow, or fishhook A, is used to show the movement of a single electron, as opposed to the full curved arrow used to show the movement of an electron pair in a polar reaction. 

I Initiation The polymerization reaction is initiated when a few radicals are generated on heating a small amount of benzoyl peroxide catalyst to break the weak 0-0 bond. A benzoyloxy radical then adds to the C=C bond of ethylene to generate a carbon radical. One electron from the C=C bond pairs up with the odd electron on the benzoyloxy radical to form a C-O bond, and the other election remains on carbon. 

I Propagation Polymerization occurs when the carbon radical formed in the initiation step adds to another ethylene molecule to yield another radical. 

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Radical Additions to Alkenes Chain-Growth Polymers... 

Conjugated dienes can be polymerized just as simple alkenes can (Section 7.10). Diene polymers are structurally more complex than simple alkene polymers, though, because double bonds remain every four carbon atoms along the chain, leading to the possibility of cis-trans isomers. The initiator (In) for the reaction can be either a radical, as occurs in ethylene polymerization, or an acid. Note that the polymerization is a 1,4-addition of the growing chain to a conjugated diene monomer. 

Polymers can be formed from compounds containing a c=c double bond. Alkenes, such as ethene, can undergo addition polymerisation to form a polymer. A polymer is a compound consisting of very long chain molecules built up from smaller molecular units, called monomers. The polymerisation of ethene, to form poly(ethene), is a free radical addition reaction. 

The addition of a radical on to an alkene generates a new radical, which potentially conld add on to a further molecnle of alkene, and so on, eventually giving a polymer. This becomes an obvious extension of the radical mechanisms we have already studied, and is the basis for the production of many commercial polymers. 

This reaction is based on a stoichiometric reaction of multifunctional olefins (enes) with thiols. The addition reaction can be initiated thermally, pho-tochemically, and by electron beam and radical or ionic mechanism. Thiyl radicals can be generated by the reaction of an excited carbonyl compound (usually in its triplet state) with a thiol or via radicals, such as benzoyl radicals from a type I photoinitiator, reacting with the thiol. The thiyl radicals add to olefins, and this is the basis of the polymerization process. The addition of a dithiol to a diolefin yields linear polymer, higher-functionality thiols and alkenes form cross-linked systems. 

Addition to terminal alkenes. - In the presence of a radical initiator, ICH2C1 ddH to terminal alkenes (80°, 6 hours) to give l-chloro-3-iodoalkanes in 80 90% yield (equation 1). Only polymers form from a similar reaction of styrene with lt H2(l addition to internal alkenes is not useful either. 

The general character of alkene polymerization by radical and ionic mechanisms was discussed briefly in Section 10-8. The same principles apply to the polymerization of alkadienes, with the added feature that there are additional ways of linking the monomer units. The polymer chain may grow by either 1,2 or 1,4 addition to the monomer. With 1,3-butadiene, for example,... 

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