Stereoselective monomers, polymerization

Elastomers based on biological monomers can be obtained by the stereoselective coordination polymerization of /S-myrcene (14). By the combination of a neodymium pre-catalyst with triisobutyl aluminmn in the presence of a boron activator results in a polymer in good yield, but there is evidence for crosslinking since the material displays a low solubility. 

Complexes 61-63 may also be used to polymerize acrylates " in a living manner, although, unlike the thiolate complexes, the methyl initiator again requires photoexcitation. Acrylate monomers polymerize faster than methacrylates, with even sterically encumbered tert-hu y acrylate being consumed more rapidly than MMA. As for MMA, no information concerning the stereoselectivity of these polymerizations has been disclosed. 

Well-defined [A(,A( -bis(2-hydroxybenzylidene)-(lR,2/ )-l,2-cyclohexane diamine] (R-salcy) aluminum complexes (e.g.. Figure 24.1, 4) have been used as stereoselective epoxide polymerization catalysts. Polymerization of racemic propylene oxide in the presence of 5 mol% 4 yields 70% conversion to poly(propylene oxide) after 62 h. The remaining unreacted monomer exhibits an optical rotation of 4-1.85°, which corresponds to an ee of 15% (Scheme 24.7). The modest r-factor... 

Abstract Metallocene complexes that serve as stereoselective olefin polymerization catalysts are described. The polymerization of propylene, styrene, methyl methacrylate, 1,3-dienes, non-conjugated dienes and cycloolefins is discussed. The stereochemistry of monomer insertion is governed by the chiral steric environment of catalysts derived from a ligand structure (catalytic-site control) or a chiral center in the polymer chain (chain-end control). The mechanism of formation of isotactic and syndiotactic polymers in each monomer and catalyst is explained. Non-metallocene catalysts for stereospecific polymerization are also mentioned. 

Titanium [153] and vanadium [154] monocyclopentadienyl complexes are known to serve as catalysts for 1,4-czs polymerization, although bis(cyclopen-tadienyl) complexes are less active [155]. Ricci et al. investigated various diene monomers using CpTiCl3-MAO catalysts and showed that stereoselectivity of polymerization depends on the monomer employed [156]. Soga reported that half-titanocene with an oxy-coordinating pendant 54 produces ds-rich polybutadiene [157,158]. 

Zhang Y, Gustafson LO, Chen EYX (2011) Dinuclear silylium-enolate bifimctional active species remarkable activity and stereoselectivity toward polymerization of methacrylate and renewable methylene butyrolactone monomers. J Am Chem Soc 133 13674... 

Extensive studies of stereoselective polymerization of epoxides were carried out by Tsuruta et al.21 s. Copolymerization of a racemic mixture of propylene oxide with a diethylzinc-methanol catalyst yielded a crystalline polymer, which was resolved into optically active polymers216 217. Asymmetric selective polymerization of d-propylene oxide from a racemic mixture occurs with asymmetric catalysts such as diethyzinc- (+) bomeol218. This reaction is explained by the asymmetric adsorption of monomers onto the enantiomorphic catalyst site219. Furukawa220 compared the selectivities of asymmetric catalysts composed of diethylzinc amino acid combinations and attributed the selectivity to the bulkiness of the substituents in the amino acid. With propylene sulfide, excellent asymmetric selective polymerization was observed with a catalyst consisting of diethylzinc and a tertiary-butyl substituted a-glycol221,222. ... 

At the first step, the insertion of MMA to the lanthanide-alkyl bond gave the enolate complex. The Michael addition of MMA to the enolate complex via the 8-membered transition state results in stereoselective C-C bond formation, giving a new chelating enolate complex with two MMA units one of them is enolate and the other is coordinated to Sm via its carbonyl group. The successive insertion of MMA afforded a syndiotactic polymer. The activity of the polymerization increased with an increase in the ionic radius of the metal (Sm > Y > Yb > Lu). Furthermore, these complexes become precursors for the block co-polymerization of ethylene with polar monomers such as MMA and lactones [215, 217]. 

The polymerization mechanism for the dual-side catalysts is totally different from the C2-symmetric complexes. Due to their geometry, the dual-side complexes show different stereoselectivities for monomer coordination and insertion. It was shown that the introduction of the stereoerror formation by the 5-substituted asymmetric catalysts originates predominately from the kinetic competition between chain back-skip and monomer coordination at the aspecific side of the catalyst [9],... 

Chien already postulated that C,-symmetric ansa-bridged complexes exist in two isomeric states, which interconvert during the course of the polymerization reaction [14, 15, 21, 22], Different stereoselectivities for monomer coordination and insertion are found for the two coordination sites of the asymmetric metallocene catalysts (Fig. 6,1 and IV). The migration of the polymer chain to the monomer, coordinated at the isoselective site f I—>11), followed by a consecutive chain back-skip (at higher temperatures) to the sterically less hindered side (II >111) leads to isotactic [mmmm] sequences [11],... 

The chiral sites which are able to rationalize the isospecific polymerization of 1-alkenes are also able, in the framework of the mechanism of the chiral orientation of the growing polymer chain, to account for the stereoselective behavior observed for chiral alkenes in the presence of isospecific heterogeneous catalysts.104 In particular, the model proved able to explain the experimental results relative to the first insertion of a chiral alkene into an initial Ti-methyl bond,105 that is, the absence of discrimination between si and re monomer enantiofaces and the presence of diastereoselectivity [preference for S(R) enantiomer upon si (re) insertion]. Upon si (re) coordination of the two enantiomers of 3-methyl-l-pentene to the octahedral model site, it was calculated that low-energy minima only occur when the conformation relative to the single C-C bond adjacent to the double bond, referred to the hydrogen atom bonded to the tertiary carbon atom, is nearly anticlinal minus, A- (anticlinal plus, A+). Thus one can postulate the reactivity only of the A- conformations upon si coordination and of the A+ conformations upon re coordination (Figure 1.16). In other words, upon si coordination, only the synperiplanar methyl conformation would be accessible to the S enantiomer and only the (less populated) synperiplanar ethyl conformation to the R enantiomer this would favor the si attack of the S enantiomer with respect to the same attack of the R enantiomer, independent of the chirality of the catalytic site. This result is in agreement with a previous hypothesis of Zambelli and co-workers based only on the experimental reactivity ratios of the different faces of C-3-branched 1-alkenes.105... 

The mechanisms of stereoselectivity which have been proposed for chain-end stereocontrolled polymerizations involving secondary monomer insertion also present a general pattern of similarity. In fact, molecular modeling studies suggest that for olefin polymerizations (both syndiospecific and isospecific, Section 4.1.2) as well as for styrene polymerization (syndiospecific, Section 4.2), the chirality of the growing chain would determine the chirality of a fluxional site, which in turn would discriminates between the two monomer enantiofaces. 

A necessary (but not sufficient) prerequisite for models of catalysts for the stereospecific polymerization of 1-olefins polymerization, is the stereoselectivity of each monomer insertion step. The possible origin of stereoselectivity in this class of systems was investigated through simple molecular mechanics calculations [11, 14, 24, 32, 52, 78-80, 82-86]. 

Stereoselective polymerization may proceed by ionic or coordination mechanisms. In many cases one admits that in the counterion or in the catalytic complex enantiomeric active centers exist, which give rise to predominantly (R) or (S) chains, respectively. Such centers may exist prior to polymerization or may be formed by reaction of a nonchiral precursor with the enantiomeric mixture of the monomers. Alternatively, one can think that the stereoselectivity depends mainly on the interaction between the entering monomer molecule (which is chiral) and the last unit in the chain (also chiral) according to this hypothesis, the enantiomeric excess inside each chain is generally low, because the occurrence of an accidental error brings about an inversion of the sense of stereoselection. 

Note 1 A stereoselective polymerization is defined as a polymerization in which a polymer molecule is formed from a mixture of stereoisomeric monomer molecules by the incorporation of only one stereoisomeric species [1]. Thus, an asymmetric enantiomer-differentiating polymerization is a stereoselective polymerization, in which all the polymer molecules are formed by the incorporation of only one type of stereoisomeric species. 

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