Step polymerization cyclization

Recall the discussion in Sec. 2-3 concerning the competition between linear polymerization and cyclization in step polymerizations. Cyclization is not competitive with linear polymerization for ring sizes greater than 7 atoms. Further, even for most of the reactants, which would yield rings of 5, 6, or 7 atoms if they cyclized, linear polymerization can be made to predominate because of the interconvertibility of the cyclic and linear structures. The difference in behavior between chain and step polymerizations arises because the cyclic structures in chain polymerization do not depropagate under the reaction conditions that is, the cyclic structure does not interconvert with the linear structure. 

The production of linear polymers by the step polymerization of polyfunctional monomers is sometimes complicated by the competitive occurrence of cyclization reactions. Ring formation is a possibility in the polymerizations of both the A—B and A—A plus B—B types. 

Reactants of the A—A (or B—B) type are not likely to undergo direct cyclization instead of linear polymerization. A groups do not react with each other and B groups do not react with each other under the conditions of step polymerization. Thus there is usually no possibility of anhydride formation from reaction of the carboxyl groups of a diacid reactant under the reaction conditions of a polyesterification. Similarly, cyclization does not occur between hydroxyl groups of a diol, amine groups of a diamine, isocyanate groups of a diisocyanate, and so on. 

A sequence of an inter- and an intramolecular Heck coupling has been used to construct the 26-membered carbocyclic compound 60 from an acyclic precursor 59, which presents half of the target molecule (Scheme 20). The first step of this twofold coupling is favored to occur inter- rather than intramolecularly, because the latter would lead to a highly strained 13-membered ring system with a biaryl unit and a frans-configmed double bond. In the cyclizing second step, polymerization is disfavored by the orientation of the two side arms in the 3- and 3 -positions of the initially formed 1,1 -biaryl derivative. 

Cyclization can be also achieved in a separate reaction step after polymerization. Cyclization of Nd-based diene rubbers has been investigated since the... 

The reaction model is the same as the one adopted by Guo et al. [12]. The coke formation is considered to follow sequential steps such as polymerization, cyclization, aromatization and condensation. The following sequence of reactions are assumed ... 

In the second step, polyamic acid is cyclo-dehy-drated at elevated temperatures (thermal imidization) or in the presence of a cyclizing agent (chemical imidization). Advantages of this method over one-step polymerization are the use of less toxic solvents and direct processing of soluble polyamic acids to form the final polyimide products in the form of films or fibers by thermal imidization. However, the storage instability of polyamic acid intermediates and the control of thermal imidization are still important issues [28]. A detail description of the thermal and chemical imidization of poly(amic acid) is given below. 

It is useful to start the kinetic analysis with an idealized case, which avoids complications that arise due to unequal stoichiometry, chain length-dependent reactivity, monofunctional impurities, cyclization, and reversible polymerization. The model addressed here is a linear AB step polymerization. 

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. 

Another factor in step-growth polymerizations is cyclization versus linear polymerization.1516 Since ADMET is a step-growth polymerization, most reactions are carried out in the bulk using high concentrations of the reactant in order to suppress most cyclic formation. A small percentage of cyclic species is always present but is dependent upon thermodynamic factors, typical of any polycondensation reaction. 

The synthetic route represents a classical ladder polymer synthesis a suitably substituted, open-chain precursor polymer is cyclized to a band structure in a polymer-analogous fashion. The first step here, formation of the polymeric, open-chain precursor structure, is AA-type coupling of a 2,5-dibromo-1,4-dibenzoyl-benzene derivative, by a Yamamoto-type aryl-aryl coupling. The reagent employed for dehalogenation, the nickel(0)/l,5-cyclooctadiene complex (Ni(COD)2), was used in stoichiometric amounts with co-reagents (2,2 -bipyridine and 1,5-cyclooctadiene), in dimethylacetamide or dimethylformamide as solvent. 

To explain the formation of non-crosslinked polymers from the diallyl quaternary ammonium system, Butler and Angelo proposed a chain growth mechanism which involved a series of intra- and inter-molecular propagation steps (15). This type of polymerization was subsequently shown to occur in a wide variety of symmetrical diene systems which cyclize to form five or six-membered ring structures. This mode of propagation of a non-conjugated diene with subsequent ring formation was later called cyclopolymerization. 

The classical synthetic pathway to prepare polyimides consists of a two-step scheme in which the first step involves polymerization of a soluble and thus processable poly(amic acid) intermediate, followed by a second dehydration step of this prepolymer to yield the final polyimide. This preparative pathway is representative of most of the early aromatic polyimide work and remains the most practical and widely utilized method of polyimide preparation to date. As illustrated in Scheme 4, this approach is based on the reaction of a suitable diamine with a dianhydride in a polar, aprotic solvent such as dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), dimethylacetamide (DMAc), dimethylformamide (DMF), or AT-methylpyrrolidone (NMP), generally at ambient temperature, to yield a poly(amic acid). The poly(amic acid) is then cyclized either thermally or chemically in a subsequent step to produce the desired polyimide. This second step will be discussed in more detail in the imidization characteristics section. More specifically, step 1 in the classical two-step synthesis of polyimides... 

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