Termination by impurities

When non-reproducible inhibition or induction periods are observed in polymerizations, when polymerization dies out at various degrees of conversion, or when its rate is poorly reproducible, terminating impurities should be 

Living anionic polymerizations are terminated by oxygen-yielding chains of double length [117] 

Quite generally, and logically, anionic polymerizations are terminated by acids, and cationic polymerizations by bases. 

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Chain termination by impurity (first-order in propagating species). 

The reactions that limit chain growth and initiate polymerization have not been defined. Is polymerization terminated by impurities Does solvent participate in transfer Does polymerization start by the reaction with a monomer or with impurities in the system These questions must be answered. For example, we noticed that successful formation of the monomodal high-molecular-weight polysilane requires the addition of a few drops of monomer to sonicated sodium dispersion prior to the addition of the main part of disubstituted dichlorosilane. 

Wilmarth and Haim described some results of a study by Schwartz, Guiliano and Wilmarth, which appears not to have been published. The reaction (1) is said to represent the main process, and its mechanism to involve steps (2)-(8), with chain termination by impurities. 

Note that the absence of both a termination and a transfer reaction means that if no accidental termination by impurity occurs, the chains will remain active indefinitely. 

Monomers were thoroughly purified in the cited works and the observed phenomena could not be ascribed to transfer or termination by impurities. It was concluded that low ring strain in six-membered cyclic phosphates ( 4kJmor ), calculated from the hydrolysis data and confirmed by us in the studies of polymerization thermodynamics, favors the transfer reactions leading to the removal of the exocyclic group from monomer, lowering their molar mass. °... 

If the growing chains are terminated by impurity X according to reaction (f) in Scheme 5.5 and the resulting ion caimot initiate the growth of new chains, Vpoi is directly proportional to according to Equation 5.7 ... 

Chains with uttdesired functionality from termination by combination or disproportionation cannot be totally avoided. Tn attempts to prepare a monofunctional polymer, any termination by combination will give rise to a difunctional impurity. Similarly, when a difunctional polymer is required, termination by disproportionation will yield a monofunctional impurity. The amount of termination by radical-radical reactions can be minimized by using the lowest practical rate of initiation (and of polymerization). Computer modeling has been used as a means of predicting the sources of chain ends during polymerization and examining their dependence on reaction conditions (Section 7.5.612 0 J The main limitations on accuracy are the precision of rate constants which characterize the polymerization. 

Minor (by amount) functionality is introduced into polymers as a consequence of the initiation, termination and chain transfer processes (Chapters 3, 5 and 6 respectively). These groups may either be at the chain ends (as a result of initiation, disproportionation, or chain transfer,) or they may be part of the backbone (as a consequence of termination by combination or the copolymerization of byproducts or impurities). In Section 8.2 wc consider three polymers (PS, PMMA and PVC) and discuss the types of defect structure that may be present, their origin and influence on polymer properties, and the prospects for controlling these properties through appropriate selection of polymerization conditions. 

Characteristic features of a—time curves for reactions of solids are discussed with reference to Fig. 1, a generalized reduced-time plot in which time values have been scaled to t0.s = 1.00 when a = 0.5. A is an initial reaction, sometimes associated with the decomposition of impurities or unstable superficial material. B is the induction period, usually regarded as being terminated by the development of stable nuclei (often completed at a low value of a). C is the acceleratory period of growth of such nuclei, perhaps accompanied by further nucleation, and which extends to the... 

As is the case for cationic polymerisation, anionic polymerisation can terminate by only one mechanism, that is by proton transfer to give a terminally unsaturated polymer. However, proton transfer to initiator is rare - in the example just quoted, it would involve the formation of the unstable species NaH containing hydride ions. Instead proton transfer has to occur to some kind of impurity which is capable for forming a more stable product. This leads to the interesting situation that where that monomer has been rigorously purified, termination cannot occur. Instead reaction continues until all of the monomer has been consumed but leaves the anionic centre intact. Addition of extra monomer causes further polymerisation to take place. The potentially reactive materials that result from anionic initiation are known as living polymers. 

The authors concluded that the side reactions normally observed in amine-initiated NCA polymerizations are simply a consequence of impurities. Since the main side reactions in these polymerizations do not involve reaction with adventitious impurities such as water, but instead reactions with monomer, solvent, or polymer (i.e., termination by reaction of the amine-end with an ester side chain, attack of DMF by the amine-end, or chain transfer to monomer) [11, 12], this conclusion does not seem to be well justified. It is likely that the role of impurities (e.g., water) in these polymerizations is very complex. A possible explanation for the polymerization control observed under high vacuum is that the impurities act to catalyze side reactions with monomer, polymer, or solvent. In this scenario, it is reasonable to speculate that polar species such as water can bind to monomers or the propagating chain-end and thus influence their reactivity. 

As the initiator, a common radical initiator and arenesulfonyl chloride are also used [286,287]. As shown in Table 6, this polymerization has a significantly large polymerization rate, and it is hardly disturbed by impurities such as alcohol and water [288]. ATRP with Cu complex was also applied to the polymerization of acrylates [289,290], methacrylates [290-297], and AN [298] as well as St [288, 297, 299]. Because of the suppressed bimolecular termination, hyperbranched polymers are readily prepared [292], being similar to the polymerization with TEMPO previously described. 

As Skinner has pointed out [7], there is no evidence for the existence of BFyH20 in the gas phase at ordinary temperatures, and the solid monohydrate of BF3 owes its stability to the lattice energy thus D(BF3 - OH2) must be very small. The calculation of AH2 shows that even if BFyH20 could exist in solution as isolated molecules at low temperatures, reaction (3) would not take place. We conclude therefore that proton transfer to the complex anion cannot occur in this system and that there is probably no true termination except by impurities. The only termination reactions which have been definitely established in cationic polymerisations have been described before [2, 8], and cannot at present be discussed profitably in terms of their energetics. It should be noted, however, that in systems such as styrene-S C/4 the smaller proton affinity of the dead (unsaturated or cyclised) polymer, coupled, with the greater size of the anion and smaller size of the cation may make AHX much less positive so that reaction (2) may then be possible because AG° 0. This would mean that the equilibrium between initiation and termination is in an intermediate position. 

Anionic polymerization represents a powerful technique for synthesizing polymers with low PDI values, thus providing good control over the chain length. This method leads to less side reactions than radical polymerizations. For instance, unlike in radical polymerization, there is no termination by the combination of two active chains. However, the mechanism is more sensitive to impurities and functional groups, and therefore applicable for only a limited class of monomers. 

The beauty of the Szwarc procedure is that the chains can be terminated by hydrolysis, oxidation, carboxylation with COz, and so on, to give polymer with the same kind of groups on each end of the chain. Also, it is possible to form chains in which different monomers are present in blocks. The only requirements are that the different monomers polymerize well by the anion mechanism and contain no groups or impurities that will destroy the active ends. Thus one can start with ethenylbenzene (S), and when the reaction is complete, add methyl 2-methylpropenoate (M) to obtain a block copolymer of the type... 

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