Radical polymerization general mechanism

For many polymers, the characterization of the polymer chain ends is important. The identification and determination of the end groups helps clarify the polymerization mechanism. Polymers synthesized by radical polymerization generally have a variety of end groups such as initiator fragments, chain transfer agents, solvent residues and the olefinic and saturated groups formed through disproportionation termination. 

It might be noted that most (not all) alkenes are polymerizable by the chain mechanism involving free-radical intermediates, whereas the carbonyl group is generally not polymerized by the free-radical mechanism. Carbonyl groups and some carbon-carbon double bonds are polymerized by ionic mechanisms. Monomers display far more specificity where the ionic mechanism is involved than with the free-radical mechanism. For example, acrylamide will polymerize through an anionic intermediate but not a cationic one, A -vinyl pyrrolidones by cationic but not anionic intermediates, and halogenated olefins by neither ionic species. In all of these cases free-radical polymerization is possible. 

The kinetics and mechanism of the thermal and photochemical decomposition of dialkyldiazenes (15) have been comprehensively reviewed by Engel. The use of these compounds as initiators of radical polymerization has been covered by Moad and Solomon2 and Sheppard.50 The general chemistry of azo-compounds has also been reviewed by Koga et cr/./11 Koenig,3 and Smith.3J... 

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. 

Eqs. (3), (4), (5), and (7) describe the mechanism of an initiated free radical polymerization in a form amenable to general kinetic treatment. The rate of initiation of chain radicals according to Eqs. (3) and (4) may be written... 

When the end groups of the polymers obtained by radical polymerization using certain iniferters still have an iniferter function, such radical polymerization is expected to proceed via a living radical mechanism even in a homogeneous system, i.e.,both the yield and the molecular weight of the polymers produced increase with reaction time. The generalized model is shown in Eq. (18) [16] ... 

Many polymerizations are initiated by free radicals, especially alkoxy radicals formed by thermal decomposition of peroxides. A general mechanism for olefin free radical polymerization with initiation, propagation, and termination is given in Fig. 14.1. 

Styrene monomer was discovered by Newman in 1786. The initial formation of PS was by Simon in 1839. Although PS was formed almost 175 years ago, the mechanism of formation, described in Sections 6.1 through 6.3, was not discovered until the early 20th century. Staudinger, using styrene as the principle model, identified the general free radical polymerization process in 1920. Initially commercialization of PS, as in many cases, awaited the ready availability of the monomer. While there was available ethyl benzene, it underwent thermal... 

Strongly electrophilic or nucleophilic monomers will polymerize exclusively by anionic or cationic mechanisms. However, monomers that are neither strongly electrophilic nor nucleophilic generally polymerize by ionic and free radical processes. The contrast between anionic, cationic, and free radical methods of addition copolymerization is clearly illustrated by the results of copolymerization utilizing the three modes of initiation (Figure 7.1). Such results illustrate the variations of reactivities and copolymer composition that are possible from employing the different initiation modes. The free radical tie-line resides near the middle since free radical polymerizations are less dependent on the electronic nature of the comonomers relative to the ionic modes of chain propagation. 

Scheme 1 General mechanism of atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP)...

Having established that a particular polymerization follows Bemoullian or first-order Markov or catalyst site control behavior tells us about the mechanism by which polymer stereochemistry is determined. The Bemoullian model describes those polymerizations in which the chain end determines stereochemistry, due to interactions between either the last two units in the chain or the last unit in the chain and the entering monomer. This corresponds to the generally accepted mechanism for polymerizations proceeding in a nonco-ordinated manner to give mostly atactic polymer—ionic polymerizations in polar solvents and free-radical polymerizations. Highly isoselective and syndioselective polymerizations follow the catalyst site control model as expected. Some syndioselective polymerizations follow Markov behavior, which is indicative of a more complex form of chain end control. 

The majority of papers published in the field of template polymerization deal with the systems in which both template and monomer are dissolved in a proper solvent and initiation occurs according to the chain mechanism.It is generally accepted that, for chain processes, there are at least three elementary processes initiation, propagation and termination. The mechanism of the addition radical polymerization can be schematically written as follows ... 

Substituted olefins that are capable of forming secondary or tertiary carbo-nium ion intermediates polymerize well by cationic initiation, but are polymerized with difficulty or not at all free radically. In general, vinyl or /-alkenes that contain electron donating groups (alkyl, ether, etc) polymerize well via a carbo-cationic mechanism. 

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,... 

This review deals with current ideas on the mechanisms operative in acrylonitrile polymerization. The topic is of importance in its own right and also because the study of acrylonitrile has cast light on heterogeneous polymerizations in general. It is an active field of research and the interpretations are still controversial. We shall look first at free-radical polymerization in homogeneous solution, where the monomer behaves in a more or less classical fashion. Next we shall consider the complications that arise where the monomer is at least partially soluble in the reaction medium but where the polymer precipitates. These conditions are encountered in bulk polymerization and in most aqueous or organic diluents. Finally we shall examine the less extensive literature on anionic polymerization and show important differences between the radical and the ionic processes. 

Simple polymerizations are the conventional anionic, radical and cationic mechanisms in which the propagating species is essentially free and unaffected by an initiator or a gegen-ion. The principal orienting influence arises from interactions between monomer and the growing polymer end groups. These electrostatic and steric interactions are generally repulsive and will tend to produce syndiotactic structure (dldldl). 

The mechanism can be best understood within the framework of the conventional theory of radical chain kinetics, provided that certain of the usual simplifying assumptions are omitted. A solution is given to the problem of steady-state polymerization rate as a function of monomer and initiator concentration, taking into account termination reactions of primary radicals and recombination of geminate chains arising from the same initiation event. This model is shown to account for the kinetic data reported herein. With appropriate rate constants it should be generally applicable to radical polymerizations. 

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