Radical polymerization product mixtures

A waterborne system for container coatings was developed based on a graft copolymerization of an advanced epoxy resin and an acryHc (52). The acryhc-vinyl monomers are grafted onto preformed epoxy resins in the presence of a free-radical initiator grafting occurs mainly at the methylene group of the aHphatic backbone on the epoxy resin. The polymeric product is a mixture of methacrylic acid—styrene copolymer, soHd epoxy resin, and graft copolymer of the unsaturated monomers onto the epoxy resin backbone. It is dispersible in water upon neutralization with an amine before cure with an amino—formaldehyde resin. 

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. 

A stream of monomer (or mixture of monomers) is made to flow rapidly over the surface of an alkali metal. If the reaction with the metal is sufficiently slow, a low concentration of monomer" ions will result. In view of the high concentration of the monomer, the monomeric" ions would add further monomer to form the dimeric and polymeric radical ions. Of course, the final product is not a radical, but it would result from a polymerization which took place to some extent on the radical ends. The mixture of monomers may be recirculated many times to increase the conversion and a solvent may be added to the system when necessary. 

In anionic and coordination polymerizations, reaction conditions can be chosen to yield polymers of specific microstructurc. However, in radical polymerization while some sensitivity to reaction conditions has been reported, the product is typically a mixture of microstructures in which 1,4-addition is favored. Substitution at the 2-position (e.g. isoprene or chloroprene - Section 4.3.2.2) favors 1,4-addition and is attributed to the influence of steric factors. The reaction temperature does not affect the ratio of 1,2 1,4-addition but does influence the configuration of the double bond formed in 1,4-addition. Lower reaction temperatures favor tram-I,4-addition (Sections 4.3.2.1 and 4.3.2.2). 

The first cyclization gives a mixture of cis- and from -isomers and only the cis-isomer goes on to give bicyclic products. The relatively slow rate of the second cyclization step, and the formation of rrou.s-product which does not cyclize, provides an explanation for the observation that radical polymerizations of triallyl monomers often give a crosslinked product. 

In the presence of a dissolved polymer, the radical polymerization of a monomer by thermal decomposition of an initiator results in a mixture of homopolymerization and graft polymerization [Brydon et al., 1973, 1974 Ludwico and Rosen, 1975, 1976 Pham et al., 2000 Russell, 2002], Polymer radicals (XXX), formed by chain transfer between the propagating radical and polymer, initiate graft polymerization of styrene. The product (XXXI) consists of polystyrene grafts on the 1,4-poly-1,3-butadiene backbone. Polymer radicals are also formed... 

Solvents 1 and 2 are known to be good solvents for poly(methyl methacrylate) solvent 3 readily dissolves polystyrene.The solubility tests show that the radically polymerized sample is insoluble in all three solvents.The solubility isthusdifferentfrom that of both poly(methyl methacrylate) and polystyrene.The anionically polymerized product dissolves on warming in the acetone/methanol mixture and also in acetonitrile it is insoluble in cyclohexane/toluene.The solubility is thus similar to that of poly(methyl methacrylate). For the cationically initiated polymerization the product is only slightly soluble in acetone/methanol, insoluble in acetonitrile, but very readily soluble in cyclohexane/toluene.The solubility thus resembles that of polystyrene. 

Destruction of dissolved polymers under acoustic treatment results in the formation of macroradicals. Insonification of dissolved polymers in the presence of monomers or a mixture of polymers results in their polymerization production of copolymers is also possible. In the presence of oxygen, radicals may combine following a peroxide pattern. 

The initiation of radical polymerizations, various transfer, as well as termination reactions all lead to a variety of products and the makeup of the mixture can only be slightly influenced by varying the reaction conditions or the monomer concentration, the initiator or the solvent. Furthermore, radical block copolymerization leads inevitably to more or less homopolymer so that the products require careful separation before the block copolymer can be characterized. Nevertheless, the synthesis of block copolymers via a radical mechanism has several important advantages ... 

A number of papers report investigations of the pyrolytic cleavage of aromatic hydrocarbons. The oxidation and pyrolysis of anisole at 1000 K have revealed first-order decay in oxygen exclusively via homolysis of the O—CH3 bond to afford phenol, cresols, methylcyclopentadiene, and CO as the major products.256 A study of PAH radical anion salts revealed that CH4 and H2 are evolved from carbene formation and anionic polymerization of the radical species, respectively.257 Pyrolysis of allylpropar-gyltosylamine was studied at temperatures of 460-500 °C and pressures of 10-16 Torr. The product mixture was dominated by hydrocarbon fragments but also contained SO2 from a proposed thermolysis of an intermediate aldimine by radical processes.258... 

Comonomer l-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone (VP) comonomer can be purified by distillation at reduced pressure prior to use. Potassium persulfate (KPS) can be purified in a mixture of water and methanol. NIPAM-co-VP copolymers with different amounts of VP can be prepared at temperatures lower or higher than the LCST of PNIPAM by free radical polymerization in water with an initiator of KPS/N,N,N/,N/-tetramethylethylenediamine (TEMED) redox. The resultant copolymer can be harvested by precipitation, i.e., pouring the reaction mixture into an equal volume of methanol. Each resultant copolymer can be further purified by several cycles of re-dissolution in water and precipitation in methanol to ensure a complete removal of residual monomers. The final product can be dried under reduced pressure at 40 °C. 

Most emulsion polymerizations are free-radical reactions. The main difference from alternative free-radical polymerizations, such as those in bulk, solution, and suspension systems, is that the propagating macroradicals in emulsion reactions are isolated from each other. Encounters between macroradicals are hindered as a consequence, and termination reactions are less frequent than in comparable systems in which the reaction mixture is not subdivided. Emulsion polymerizations thus often yield high-molccular-wcight products at fast rates when suspension or bulk reactions of the same monomers are inefficient. 

All the phenyl radicals, phenoxyl radicals and hydroxycyclohexadienyl radicals produced from phenols by various reactions react with each other and with other radicals to form, at least in part, new C—C or C—O bonds. As a result of these reactions, irradiation of phenols can lead to dimeric and polymeric products and irradiation of phenols in mixtures with other compounds can lead to crosshnking of the two materials. For example, irradiation of tyrosine or dopa with albumin in aqueous solutions leads to binding of these phenols to the protein . Similarly, irradiation of tyrosine and its peptides - or mixtures of tyrosine and thymine led to various dimerization products. The latter case was studied as a model for radiation-induced crosshnking between proteins and DNA. 

Radical polymerization can be carried out under homogenous as well as heterogenous conditions. This difference is classified based on whether the initial mixture and/or final product are homogenous or heterogenous. Some homogenous mixtures become heterogenous as polymerization proceeds as a result of insolubility of the resulting polymer in the reaction media. There are many other specialized processes that are used to synthesize materials via free-radical polymerization. These include interfacial polymerization, gas phase reactions ( popcorn polymerization ), as well as the use of specialized media like supercritical fluids. Current research efforts include the study of such... 

The major applications of dense gases, fluids above or in the vicinity of the critical point, have been for the extraction of specific compounds from solid matrices or liquid mixtures. Well-known examples include the decaffeination of coffee, extraction of olfactory compounds for the perfume and food industries, the extraction of essential oils, and the use of SCFs for the extraction of heavy fractions from distillates. These processes benefit from the selectivity of dense gases. A variety of new applications has been identified for which the properties of dense gases, other than the solvent power, are utilized. One field is the utilization of dense gases as a reactant for reactions. The dense gas processes for the production of low density polyethylene (LDPE) by free radical polymerization, and more recently, the manufacture of fiuoropolymers have annual outputs measured in bulk tonnages. 

A few other methods have been used to prepare polypeptide hybrid copolymers. Inoue polymerized Bn-Glu NCA off of amine-functionalized styrene derivatives, and then copolymerized these end-functionalized polypeptides with either styrene or methyl methacrylate using free radical initiators to yield hybrid comb architecture copolymers [38]. Although unreacted polypeptide was identified and removed by fractionation, copolymers were obtained with polypeptide content that increased with feed ratio. There was no mention if the polypeptide interfered with the radical chemistry. In similar work, Imanishi and coworkers converted the amine-ends of polypeptides to haloacetyl groups that were used to initiate the free radical polymerization of either styrene or methylmethacrylate to yield hybrid block copolymers [39]. Studies using CPC showed that the crude product contained mixtures of copolymers and homopolymers, and so removal of the homopolymers by extraction was necessary. 

---