The initiation reaction

General mechanism of the oxidation of polymers 2.1 THE INITIATION REACTION The formation of polymer radicals 

Theoretically, any Lewis acid can catalyze oxetane polymerizations. However, these acids differ considerably in their effectiveness. Boron trifluoride and its etherates are the most widely reported catalysts. Moisture must be excluded as it tends to be detrimental to the reaction.  

It was reported that when oxetane polymerizations are carried out with boron trifluoride catalyst in methylene chloride at temperatures between 0 °C to -27.8 °C, a cocatalyst is not required. The product, however, is a mixture of a linear polymer and a small amount of a cyclic tetramer. This is in agreement with an earlier observation that the polymerizations of oxetane are complicated by formations of small amounts of cyclic tetramers. Other catalysts, protonic acids, capable of generating oxonium ions, will polymerize oxetane. These acids are sulfuric, trifluoracetic, and fluorosulfuric. The initiation reaction can be illustrated as follows  

The adduct reacts with another cyclic ether  

When Lewis acid complexes with active hydrogen compounds initiate the polymerizations, the complexes acts as protonic acids. On the other hand, etherates initiate by forming oxonium ions and may involve alkyl exchange reactions with the monomer  

Chlorinated hydrocarbon solvents, like methylene chloride, chloroform and carbon tetrachloride, are common choices. The reactions are usually conducted at low temperatures and there are indications that the lower the reaction temperature the higher the molecular weight of the product 

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The mechanism of the formation of these three compounds is based on the initial reaction between ethanol and a strong acid such as sulphuric acid, which involves protonation of the ethanolic oxygen to form the ion (1). 

A 1500 ml. flask is fitted (preferably by means of a three-necked adaptor) with a rubber-sleeved or mercury-sealed stirrer (Fig. 20, p. 39), a reflux water-condenser, and a dropping-funnel cf. Fig. 23(c), p. 45, in which only a two-necked adaptor is shown or Fig. 23(G)). The dried zinc powder (20 g.) is placed in the flask, and a solution of 28 ml. of ethyl bromoacetate and 32 ml. of benzaldehyde in 40 ml. of dry benzene containing 5 ml. of dry ether is placed in the dropping-funnel. Approximately 10 ml. of this solution is run on to the zinc powder, and the mixture allowed to remain unstirred until (usually within a few minutes) a vigorous reaction occurs. (If no reaction occurs, warm the mixture on the water-bath until the reaction starts.) The stirrer is now started, and the rest of the solution allowed to run in drop-wise over a period of about 30 minutes so that the initial reaction is steadily maintained. The flask is then heated on a water-bath for 30 minutes with continuous stirring, and is then cooled in an ice-water bath. The well-stirred product is then hydrolysed by the addition of 120 ml. of 10% sulphuric acid. The mixture is transferred to a separating-funnel, the lower aqueous layer discarded, and the upper benzene layer then... 

In the absence of a tertiary amine, the initial reaction is again the formatfon of a trialkyl phosphite and hydrogen chloride. The latter now reacts rapidly with the trialkyl phosphite to give the alkyl chloride and the dialkyl hydrogen... 

With phenylalanine and tyrosine, the sodium salt of the derivative is sparingly soluble in water and separates during the initial reaction. Acidify the suspension to Congo red the salts pass into solution and the mixture separates into two layers. The derivative is in the etheresil lay and crystallises from it within a few minutes. It is filtered off and recrystaUised. 

When polymers or other water-soluble substances are present in the sample, it is advantageous to add a small amount of chloroform to the initial reaction mixture after the subsequent addition of water, a two-phase system results which may be titrated in the usual way to a starch end point or by observing the disappearance of the iodine colour in the chloroform layer. 

The kinetics of nitration in acetic anhydride are complicated. In addition to the initial reaction between nitric acid and the solvent, subsequent reactions occur which lead ultimately to the formation of tetranitromethane furthermore, the observation that acetoxylation accompanies the nitration of the homologues of benzene adds to this complexity. 

Evidence from the viscosities, densities, refractive indices and measurements of the vapour pressure of these mixtures also supports the above conclusions. Acetyl nitrate has been prepared from a mixture of acetic anhydride and dinitrogen pentoxide, and characterised, showing that the equilibria discussed do lead to the formation of that compound. The initial reaction between nitric acid and acetic anhydride is rapid at room temperature nitric acid (0-05 mol 1 ) is reported to be converted into acetyl nitrate with a half-life of about i minute. This observation is consistent with the results of some preparative experiments, in which it was found that nitric acid could be precipitated quantitatively with urea from solutions of it in acetic anhydride at —10 °C, whereas similar solutions prepared at room temperature and cooled rapidly to — 10 °C yielded only a part of their nitric acid ( 5.3.2). The following equilibrium has been investigated in detail ... 

In addition to the initial reaction between nitric acid and acetic anhydride, subsequent changes lead to the quantitative formation of tetranitromethane in an equimolar mixture of nitric acid and acetic anhydride this reaction was half completed in 1-2 days. An investigation of the kinetics of this reaction showed it to have an induction period of 2-3 h for the solutions examined ([acetyl nitrate] = 0-7 mol 1 ), after which the rate adopted a form approximately of the first order with a half-life of about a day, close to that observed in the preparative experiment mentioned. In confirmation of this, recent workers have found the half-life of a solution at 25 °C of 0-05 mol 1 of nitric acid to be about 2 days. ... 

We define the problem by assuming the polymerization involves AA and BB monomers and that the B groups are present in excess. We define and to be the numbers of A and B functional groups, respectively. The number of either of these quantities in the initial reaction mixture is indicated by a superscript 0 the numbers at various stages of reaction have no superscript. The stoichiometric imbalance is defined by the ratio r, where... 

In ionic polymerizations termination by combination does not occur, since all of the polymer ions have the same charge. In addition, there are solvents such as dioxane and tetrahydrofuran in which chain transfer reactions are unimportant for anionic polymers. Therefore it is possible for these reactions to continue without transfer or termination until all monomer has reacted. Evidence for this comes from the fact that the polymerization can be reactivated if a second batch of monomer is added after the initial reaction has gone to completion. In this case the molecular weight of the polymer increases, since no new growth centers are initiated. Because of this absence of termination, such polymers are called living polymers. 

Triazines pose rather more of a problem, probably because the carbons are in an effectively oxidized state so that no metaboHc energy is obtained by their metaboHsm. Very few pure cultures of microorganisms are able to degrade triazines such as Atrazine, although some Pseudomonads are able to use the compound as sole source of nitrogen in the presence of citrate or other simple carbon substrates. The initial reactions seem to be the removal of the ethyl or isopropyl substituents on the ring (41), followed by complete mineralization of the triazine ring. 

However, reaction 7 suffers other shortcomings, eg, entropy problems. Other proposals range from trace peroxidic contaminants to ionic mechanisms for generating peroxides (1) to cosmic rays (17). In any event, the initiating reactions are significant only during the induction period (18). 

In general, an appropriate initiator is a species which has approximately the same stmcture and reactivity as the propagating anionic species, ie, the piC of the conjugate acid of the propagating anion should correspond closely to the piC of the conjugate acid of the initiating species. If the initiator is too reactive, side reactions between the initiator and monomer can occur if the initiator is not reactive enough, then the initiation reaction may be slow or inefficient. 

The kinetics of initiation reactions of alkyllithium compounds often exhibit fractional kinetic order dependence on the total concentration of initiator as shown in Table 2. For example, the kinetics of the initiation reaction of //-butyUithium with styrene monomer in benzene exhibit a first-order dependence on styrene concentration and a one-sixth order dependence on //-butyUithium concentration as shown in equation 13, where is the rate constant for... 

Preparation from Amines. The most common method of preparing isocyanates, even on a commercial scale, involves the reaction of phosgene [75-44-5] and aromatic or aUphatic amine precursors. The initial reaction step, the formation of N-substituted carbamoyl chloride (1), is highly exothermic and is succeeded by hydrogen chloride elimination which takes place at elevated temperatures. 

For methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI), the initial reaction involves the condensation of aniline [62-53-3] (21) with formaldehyde [50-00-0] to yield a mixture of oligomeric amines (22, where n = 1, 2, 3...). For toluene diisocyanate, amine monomers are prepared by the nitration (qv) of toluene [108-88-3] and subsequent hydrogenation (see Amines byreduction). These materials are converted to the isocyanate, in the majority of the commercial aromatic isocyanate phosgenation processes, using a two-step approach. 

An excess of phosgene is used during the initial reaction of amine and phosgene to retard the formation of substituted ureas. Ureas are undesirable because they serve as a source for secondary product formation which adversely affects isocyanate stabiUty and performance. By-products, such as biurets (23) and triurets (24), are formed via the reaction of the labile hydrogens of the urea with excess isocyanate. Isocyanurates (25, R = phenyl, toluyl) may subsequendy be formed from the urea oligomers via ring closure. 

The degree of polymerization is controlled by the rate of addition of the initiator. Reaction in the presence of an initiator proceeds in two steps. First, the rate-determining decomposition of initiator to free radicals. Secondly, the addition of a monomer unit to form a chain radical, the propagation step (Fig. 2) (9). Such regeneration of the radical is characteristic of chain reactions. Some of the mote common initiators and their half-life values are Hsted in Table 3 (10). 

In practice, ammonia is most frequendy used. With hexa, the initial reaction steps differ, but the final resole resins are identical, provided they contain the same number of nitrogen and CH2 groups. Most nitrogen from ammonia or hexa is incorporated as diben2ylamine with primary, tertiary, and cycHc amine stmctures as minor products. 

Mechanism of the initial reaction, known as alkaline peeling, is shown in equation 4. EnoHzations and tautomerizations take place easily because of the contiguous hydroxyl groups. The hydroxyl or substituted hydroxyl on the second, ie, P-carbon, from a carbonyl group is released from the molecule by P-elimination. 

Delignification Chemistty. The chemical mechanism of sulfite delignification is not fully understood. However, the chemistry of model compounds has been studied extensively, and attempts have been made to correlate the results with observations on the rates and conditions of delignification (61). The initial reaction is sulfonation of the aUphatic side chain, which occurs almost exclusively at the a-carbon by a nucleophilic substitution. The substitution displaces either a hydroxy or alkoxy group ... 

Conra.d-Limpa.ch-KnorrSynthesis. When a P-keto ester is the carbonyl component of these pathways, two products are possible, and the regiochemistry can be optimized. Aniline reacts with ethyl acetoacetate below 100°C to form 3-anilinocrotonate (14), which is converted to 4-hydroxy-2-methylquinoline [607-67-0] by placing it in a preheated environment at 250°C. If the initial reaction takes place at 160°C, acetoacetanilide (15) forms and can be cyclized with concentrated sulfuric acid to 2-hydroxy-4-methylquinoline [607-66-9] (49). This example of kinetic vs thermodynamic control has been employed in the synthesis of many quinoline derivatives. They are useful as intermediates for the synthesis of chemotherapeutic agents (see Chemotherapeuticsanticancer). 

Carboyylic acid ester hydrolysis is frequendy observed as the initial reaction for pesticides with ester bonds, such as 2,4-D esters, pyrethroids, and DCPA (dacthal) (8) (eq. 11) (16). 

Carbamate hydrolysis is frequendy observed as the initial reaction for pesticides having carbamate bonds, such as aldicarb, carbofuran, carbaryl, and benomyl (eq. 12) (19). Numerous genera of carbamate-hydroly2ing bacteria have been identified, including Pseudomonas, Jhihrobacter, Bacillus, Nocardia, Achromobacter, Flavobacterium, Streptomyces, Alcaligenes, A spirillum, Micrococcus, and Bhodococcus. 

Urea hydrolysis is frequently observed as the initial reaction for pesticides having urea bonds, such as linuron, diuron, and chlorsulfuron (10) (eq. 14)... 

If the initiation reaction is much faster than the propagation reaction, then all chains start to grow at the same time. Because there is no inherent termination step, the statistical distribution of chain lengths is very narrow. The average molecular weight is calculated from the mole ratio of monomer-to-initiator sites. Chain termination is usually accompHshed by adding proton donors, eg, water or alcohols, or electrophiles such as carbon dioxide. 

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