Stereoselective polymerization kinetics

From a kinetic point of view processes (1) and (2) are characterized by equal macroscopic reaction rates for both enantiomers (v = Vj), while for (3) v Vj (in the extreme case, one of the two rates is zero). At the microscopic level, for a stereoselective polymerization... 

The coordinate type catalysts are also effective for thiirane polymerizations. The types of systems used are also similar. Thus diethylzinc and in particular diethylzinc/water mixtures have been studied [44]. Other studies made using triethylaluminium and diethylcadmium indicated that these metal alkyls all behave similarly. The reactions seem to be rather complex, and, as also was the case with the epoxides, no well defined kinetic studies have appeared. The polymers produced are of high molecular weight and are often crystalline. Thus stereospecific polysulphides have been reported. Again the bulk of the studies involve PS. Stereoselective polymerization of racemic monomer has been accomplished [45, 46] using a catalyst prepared from diethylzinc and (+) borneol. The marked difference between PO and PS in their polymer-... 

Soum and Fontanille report that di-s-butyl magnesium generates living polymer from 2-vinylpyridine without the involvement of the side-reactions that afflict the polymerization initiated by alkali metal alkyls the resulting polymer has an isotacticity index of 0.9. Arai et al. have synthesized styrene-butadiene-4-vinylpyridine triblock copolymers. Hogen-Esch et a/. have continued their study of the stereochemistry of the anionic polymerization of 2-vinylpyridine in THF solution. Oligomers were synthesized by addition of alkali salts of 2-ethylpyridine to 2-vinylpyridine termination was effected by reaction with methyl iodide. Highly isotactic products were obtained with U and Na as counterions but with K or Rb there was no stereoselection. Epimerization resulted in the expected statistical mixtures of stereoisomers and it was concluded that stereoselection is kinetically controlled. 

Zhong Z, Dijkstra PJ, Feijen J. 2003. Controlled and Stereoselective Polymerization of Lactide Kinetics, Selectivity, and Microstructures. J Am Chem Soc 125 11291-11298. 

Crotonaldehyde, hydrogenation of, 43-48 Cubane, isomerization of, 148 Cyclic dienes, metathesis of, 135 Cyclic polyenes, metathesis of, 135 Cycloalkenes, metathesis of, 134-136 kinetic model, 164 ring-opening polymerization, 143 stereoselectivity, 158-160 transalkylation, 142-144 transalkylidenation, 142-144 Cyclobutane configuration, 147 geometry of, 145, 146 Cyclobutene, metathesis of, 135 1,5,9-Cyclododecatriene, metathesis of, 135... 

The most famous mechanism, namely Cossets mechanism, in which the alkene inserts itself directly into the metal-carbon bond (Eq. 5), has been proposed, based on the kinetic study [134-136], This mechanism involves the intermediacy of ethylene coordinated to a metal-alkyl center and the following insertion of ethylene into the metal-carbon bond via a four-centered transition state. The olefin coordination to such a catalytically active metal center in this intermediate must be weak so that the olefin can readily insert itself into the M-C bond without forming any meta-stable intermediate. Similar alkyl-olefin complexes such as Cp2NbR( /2-ethylene) have been easily isolated and found not to be the active catalyst precursor of polymerization [31-33, 137]. In support of this, theoretical calculations recently showed the presence of a weakly ethylene-coordinated intermediate (vide infra) [12,13]. The stereochemistry of ethylene insertion was definitely shown to be cis by the evidence that the polymerization of cis- and trans-dideutero-ethylene afforded stereoselectively deuterated polyethylenes [138]. 

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],... 

Following route A (Fig. 1), Yan Xiao et al. reported the chemoenzymatic synthesis of poly(8-caprolactone) (PCL) and chiral poly(4-methyl-8-caprolactone) (PMCL) microparticles [5]. The telechelic polymer diol precursors were obtained by enzymatic polymerization of the corresponding monomers in the presence of hexanediol. Enzymatic kinetic resolution polymerization directly yielded the (R)-and (S )-enriched chiral polymers. After acrylation using acryloylchloride, the chiral and nonchiral particles were obtained by crosslinking in an oil-in-water emulsion photopolymerization. Preliminary degradation experiments showed that the stereoselectivity of CALB is retained in the degradation of the chiral microparticles (Fig. 2). 

From the earlier discussion it will be amply apparent that block copolymers may be synthesized from NCAs by the use of a preformed poly-0 -amino acid to initiate the polymerization of the NCA of a different a-amino acid. The kinetics of such a reaction would be expected to be determined by features already discussed in general, the rate coefficient for initiation may differ from that of propagation (Section 1) and phenomena attributable to stereoselectivity, polymer gregation and monomer adsorption (Sections 8 and 9) may arise. 

The mechanistic complexities of stereoselectivity is further evidenced by a recent report by Maudoux et a/. who describe a chiral aluminum salen catalyst that generates highly isotactic PLA from rac-lactide (Pm-0.90). In this example, the kinetics indicated a dominant chain-end control mechanism, which contrasts to other chiral aluminum salen catalysts where enantiomorphic site control is thought to predomi-nate. ° All the previously mentioned chiral aluminum salen alkoxide systems require multiple days at elevated temperatures to polymerize -200 equiv. of lactide. The low activity of chiral aluminum salen systems towards lactide polymerization is a major drawback of these systems. 

Precatalysts 41a-c and 44 were activated with MAO and tested for kinetic resolution. Tetradecane was used as a solvent for these polymerizations at 25 °C. Kinetic resolution was reported by using stereoselectivity factors, or values, where s = (rate of fast reacting enantiomer)/(rate of slow reacting enantiomer). Experimentally, s may be calculated by using the following equation s = ln[(l -c)(l -ee)]/ln[(l - c)(l-fee)], where ee is the enantiomeric excess of the recovered olefin and c is the fraction conversion. If no kinetic resolution is achieved, s = 1. The authors assayed the fraction conversion, c, by gas chromatography (GC) analysis of two aliquots for each polymerization run (1) an aliquot removed immediately before the start of polymerization (i.e., immediately before the addition of zirconocene catalyst) and (2) an aliquot removed after the desired conversion was reached in all cases, tetradecane was used as the internal standard. 

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