Syndiotactic placements

The Fischer projections show that isotactic placement corresponds to meso or m-place-ment for a pair of consecutive stereocenters. Syndiotactic placement corresponds to racemo (for racemic) or r-placement for a pair of consecutive stereocenters. The configurational... 

Consider the description of the sequence distribution of isotactic and syndiotactic placements in the polymerization of a monosubstituted ethylene. The approach is general and can be applied with appropriate modification to the 1,4-polymerization of a 1,3-diene. Dyad tac-ticity is defined as the fractions of pairs of adjacent repeating units that are isotactic or syndiotactic to one another. The isotactic and syndiotactic dyads (XV) are usually referred to as meso and racemic dyads. The horizontal line in XV represents a segment of the polymer... 

Since radical polymerizations are generally carried out at moderately high temperatures, most of the resulting polymers are highly atactic. This does not mean that there is a complete absence of syndiotacticity. There is a considerable difference in the extent of syndiotacticity from one polymer to another. Thus, methyl methacrylate has a much greater tendency toward syndiotactic placement than vinyl chloride. Whereas the poly(vinyl chloride) produced at the usual commerical polymerization temperature ( 60°C) is essential completely atactic, that is, (r) (m) 0.5, this is not the case for poly(methyl methacrylate). The polymerization of MMA, usually carried out at temperatures up to 100°C, yields polymers with appreciable syndiotacticity—(r) is 0.73 at 100°C. The difference is a consequence of the fact that MMA is a 1,1-disubstituted ethylene, leading to greater repulsions between substituents in adjacent monomer units. 

In summary, syndioselective initiators exaggerate the inherent tendency toward syndiotactic placement by accentuating the methyl-methyl repulsive interactions between the propagating chain end and incoming monomer. Isotactic placement occurs against this inherent tendency when chiral active sites force monomer to coordinate with the same enantioface at each propagation step. 

Both bridged and unbridged C2v-symmetric metallocenes, mostly the unsubstituted biscyclopentadienyl initiators, but also others such as (CH3)2SiFlu2ZrCl2, have been studied. These initiators are achiral, and their two coordination (active) sites are both achiral and homotopic. The result is that atactic polymer is formed via chain end control. Modest tendencies toward slight isotactic or syndiotactic placement are observed for some initiators, depending on the temperature and other reaction conditions. 

The stereoselective polymerization of various acrylates and methacrylates has been studied using initiators such as atkyllithium [Bywater, 1989 Pasquon et al., 1989 Quirk, 1995, 2002]. Table 8-12 illustrates the effects of counterion, solvent, and temperature on the stereochemistry of the anionic polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA). In polar solvents (pyridine and THF versus toluene), the counterion is removed from the vicinity of the propagating center and does not exert an influence on entry of the next monomer unit. The tendency is toward syndiotactic placement via chain end control. The extent of syndiotacticity... 

Cram and Kopecky also suggested a transition state for the polymerization carried by free ions. It is based on the preferred conformation being that which most exposes the active centre to attack and the supposition that the steric effects of the side groups decrease in the order Pn > COOCHg > CHS. This would favour syndiotactic placements. 

Table 2. Probability of isotactic or syndiotactic placements Coleman and Fox (18) methyl-methacrylate polymerizations at 0° C...

The signal a of methyl protons consists of two doublet resonances. The weak doublet resonance (d, 8 1.98, JH H = 6.8 Hz) at lower field is related to the erythro (isotactic) placement of the last propylene unit (4-e), whereas the strong doublet resonance (d, 8 1.95, JH H = 6.8 Hz) at higher field is related to the threo (syndiotactic) placement of the same unit (4-t),... 

Thus, the preference for syndiotactic placement is to be ascribed entirely to a small additional energy required for isotactic placement,... 

AFf — AFf, calculated from is approximately 0.9 kcal. at pH 2.0 and 1.3 kcal. at pH 10.0. It appears reasonable to interpret the additional 0.4 kcal. free energy requirement at high pH as arising from a greater coulombic repulsion in the activated state for isotactic placement than in the activated state for syndiotactic placement. The ionic strength of the polymerization medium is very high (of the order of 2) at high pH it would therefore appear that an even more marked effect of pH... 

If the value of this probability parameter is a <= 1, an essentially iso tactic structure is obtained. If, on the other hand a 0, almost all the monomer units in the chain are in syndiotactic placements. If the polymer is capable of crystallization and the crystallization takes place under equilibrium conditions, then the limitation of this model is that a small melting point depression implies also a high degree of percent crystallinity. Although there are a number of systems, for example stereoregular methyl methacrylate (2, 8), in which this is true and this model is valid, this is not the case for polymers of propylene oxide from different catalysts that we discuss in another chapter (1). 

In a companion paper Price and Akkapeddi [22] report the kinetics of base initiated polymerization of epoxides in DMSO and hexamethyl-phosphoramide (HMPT). The initiator is potassium t-butoxide. Second order rate coefficients for (R,S)—PO were about double those for (+)—(R) or (—)—(S) monomer. They conclude that the steric factor favouring alternation of isotactic and syndiotactic placement of the t-BuEO also influences PO. Chain transfer to solvent (DMSO) was also studied. For PO polymerization in DMSO they obtain k = 1.5 x 10 exp(—17,200/RT). However, due to some erratic results they are not very confident about the accuracy. In HMPT rates are about three fold faster than in DMSO k = 7.3 X 10 exp(—16,300/RT). Three other epoxides were also studied in HMPT EO, k = 2.75 x 10 exp(-13,300/RT) t-BuEO, fe = 2.0 x 10 exp(-17,100/RT) phenylglycidyl ether (PGE), fc = 5.4 x 10" ... 

S. Probability that a syndiotactic step follows on a syndiotactic placement... 

Chiral catalyst 171 was used to effect kinetic resolution of the racemic lactide in the polymerization of the racemic lactide [216]. At low conversion high enantiomeric enrichment in the polymer was observed (Scheme 6.169). The stereochemistry of the catalyst overrides the tendency for syndiotactic placements that are typically favored by chain-end control. At higher conversions, the ee in the polymer decreases. 

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