Syndiotactic temperature

Tacticity of products. Most solid catalysts produce isotactic products. This is probably because of the highly orienting effect of the solid surface, as noted in item (1). The preferred isotactic configuration produced at these surfaces is largely governed by steric and electrostatic interactions between the monomer and the ligands of the transition metal. Syndiotacticity is mostly produced by soluble catalysts. Syndiotactic polymerizations are carried out at low temperatures, and even the catalyst must be prepared at low temperatures otherwise specificity is lost. With polar monomers syndiotacticity is also promoted by polar reaction media. Apparently the polar solvent molecules compete with monomer for coordination sites, and thus indicate more loosely coordinated reactive species. 

Table 2. Glass-Transition Temperatures of Atactic, Syndiotactic, and Isotactic Polymethacrylate Esters,...

Polymorphism. Many crystalline polyolefins, particularly polymers of a-olefins with linear alkyl groups, can exist in several polymorphic modifications. The type of polymorph depends on crystallisa tion conditions. Isotactic PB can exist in five crystal forms form I (twinned hexagonal), form II (tetragonal), form III (orthorhombic), form P (untwinned hexagonal), and form IP (37—39). The crystal stmctures and thermal parameters of the first three forms are given in Table 3. Form II is formed when a PB resin crystallises from the melt. Over time, it is spontaneously transformed into the thermodynamically stable form I at room temperature, the transition takes about one week to complete. Forms P, IP, and III of PB are rare they can be formed when the polymer crystallises from solution at low temperature or under pressure (38). Syndiotactic PB exists in two crystalline forms, I and II (35). Form I comes into shape during crystallisation from the melt (very slow process) and form II is produced by stretching form-1 crystalline specimens (35). 

Syndiotactic Polybutadiene. Syndiotactic polybutadiene is a unique material that combines the properties of plastic and mbber. It melts at high (150—220°C) temperatures, depending on the degree of crystallinity in the sample, and it can be molded into thin films that are flexible and have high elongation. The unique feature of this plastic-like material is that it can be blended with natural mbber. 1,4-Polybutadiene and the resulting blends exhibit a compatible formulation that combines the properties of plastic and mbber. 

Commercial poly(methyl methacrylate) is a transparent material, and microscopic and X-ray analyses generally indicate that the material is amorphous. For this reason the polymer was for many years considered to be what is now known as atactic in structure. It is now, however, known that the commercial material is more syndiotactic than atactic. (On one scale of assessment it might be considered about 54% syndiotactic, 37% atactic and 9% isotactic. Reduction in the temperature of free-radical polymerisation down to -78°C increases the amount of syndiotacticity to about 78%). 

Because of the chain-stiffening effect of the benzene ring the TgS of commercial materials are in the range 90-100°C and isotactic polymers have similar values (approx. 100°C). A consequence of this Tg value plus the amorphous nature of the polymer is that we have a material that is hard and transparent at room temperature. Isotactic polystyrenes have been known since 1955 but have not been of commercial importance. Syndiotactic polystyrene using metallocene catalysis has recently become of commercial interest. Both stereoregular polymers are crystalline with values of 230°C and 270°C for the isotactic and syndiotactic materials respectively. They are also somewhat brittle (see Section 16.3). 

The term tactidty refers to the configuration of polymer chains when their constituent monomer residues contain a steric center. Figure 1.8 illustrates the three principal classes of tacticity as exemplified by polypropylene. In isotactic polypropylene, the methyl groups are all positioned on the same side of the chain, as shown in Fig. 1.8 a). In syndiotactic polypropylene, the methyl groups alternate from one side to the other, as shown in Fig. 1.8 b). Random placement of the methyl groups results in atactic polypropylene, which is shown in Fig. 1.8 c). We can readily observe the effects of tacticity on the properties of polypropylene isotactic polypropylene is hard and stiff at room temperature, syndiotactic polypropylene is soft and flexible, and atactic polypropylene is soft and rubbery. 

We can employ coordination polymerization to produce stereoregular polystyrene. By performing this type of reaction at low temperatures, using Ziegler-Natta or single-site catalysts, we can prepare isotactic and syndiotactic versions of polystyrene. 

The vinyl chloride monomer polymerizes via addition polymerization to form polyvinyl chloride. The final polymer has the chemical composition shown in Fig. 22.1. The polymer exhibits limited crystallinity, though this property is not often considered as important in defining its performance. It tends to be atactic or regionally syndiotactic, surrounded by extended atactic runs. When exposed to temperatures above 100 °C, polyvinyl chloride decomposes, creating free radicals that further attack the polymer chain, as we shall discuss in more detail later. For this reason, the degradation of polyvinyl chloride is autocatalytic... 

PMMA can exist in two simple stereoregular forms, isotactic and syndiotactic, but commercially available samples—prepared via free-radical initiators—tend to have tacticities lying in the range 60-70% syndiotactic triad content, the exact content depending upon the reaction temperature.426 Several terminating side reactions have been identified, the most important of which is intramolecular cyclization leading to methoxide formation, as shown in Scheme 5.427... 

A third factor influencing the value of Tg is backbone symmetry, which affects the shape of the potential wells for bond rotations. This effect is illustrated by the pairs of polymers polypropylene (Tg=10 C) and polyisobutylene (Tg = -70 C), and poly(vinyi chloride) (Tg=87 C) and poly(vinylidene chloride) (Tg =- 19°C). The symmetrical polymers have lower glass transition temperatures than the unsymmetrical polymers despite the extra side group, although polystyrene (100 C) and poly(a-meth-ylstyrene) are illustrative exceptions. However, tacticity plays a very important role (54) in unsymmetrical polymers. Thus syndiotactic and isoitactic poly( methyl methacrylate) have Tg values of 115 and 45 C respectively. 

By using conformationally variable Cp ligands such as C5H4Pr1, change in the dominant mode of propylene polymerization from isotactic to syndiotactic was accomplished by varying the reaction temperature [172]. 

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