Thermal polymerization of p-methyl styrene at high conversions and temperatures

An experimental investigation of the kinetics of the thermally initiated free radical polymerization of p-methyl styrene in bulk at temperatures of 120°, 140° and 160° in the conversion range, 0–96% is reported. Conversions were measured gravimetrically and by gas chromatography and molecular weight distributions and weight-average molecular weights by size exclusion chromatography (SEC) and low angle laser light scattering photometry (LALLSP). A kinetic model which accounts for diffusion-controlled termination and predicts conversion/time and molecular weight and long chain branching development for nonisothermal polymerizations has been developed. This model should find use in the design, simulation and optimization of poly(p-methyl styrene) reactors.     

Surfactant-enhanced free radical polymerization of styrene in emulsion gels

The presence of a surfactant (such as hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide, CTAB) enhanced the rate of polymerization of styrene in emulsion gels with and without silica. The emulsion gels consisted of styrene, azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN), surfactant, water, and, in some cases, fumed silica. Polymerization of the emulsions was carried out at room temperature in one or several days depending on the composition of the emulsion. The conversion of monomer to polymer could exceed 90% in a couple of days. In contrast, very little polymerization occurred in the absence of surfactant. A simple model, incorporating a surfactant-initiator complex and standard free radical polymerization, successfully fits the experimental kinetics data. This analysis suggests that the initiator is complexed with approximately three surfactant molecules.     

Kinetics of styrene emulsion polymerization with a stable monomer radical

We have analyzed the electrical conductivity of a linear high charge density polyelectrolyte aqueous solution, finding that the counterion association order follows the same pattern as that described for a cyclic monomeric polyelectrolyte, i.e. NO > Br^? > Cl^? > F^?. However, these counterions interact in a very different manner with this polyion, making Eisenberg's relationship inapplicable in this system. Consequently, an alternative method is proposed for treating data.     

Modelling of free radical polymerization of styrene and methyl methacrylate by a tetrafunctional initiator

A mathematical model for free radical polymerizations initiated by tetrafunctional initiators is described in detail with comparisons to experimental results. Reactions involving the fate/efficiency of functional groups are properly accounted for, while in the past, kinetic models for difunctional initiators found in the literature have ignored this. Free volume theory is used to describe the diffusion-controlled regime. Based on model predictions, multi-radical concentrations were estimated to be several orders of magnitude smaller than mono-radical concentrations. Through various case studies, the model was able to demonstrate that the concentration and chain length of various polymer structures (i.e., linear, star or coupled stars) depend upon monomer type and reaction conditions. The model was found to be useful in explaining experimentally observed differences in the behaviour of a tetrafunctional initiator with styrene compared to methyl methacrylate (MMA). In both cases, higher reaction rates could be obtained when switching from a mono- to a tetrafunctional initiator; however, the influence on molecular weight was found to vary between the two systems. Work with styrene showed similar trends as with difunctional initiators, where the tetrafunctional initiator maintained similar molecular weights compared to a monofunctional initiator. Yet, for MMA, replacing the monofunctional initiator with its tetrafunctional counterpart decreased the molecular weight.     

聚丁二烯橡胶接枝苯乙烯本体自由基聚合机理

采用傅里叶变换红外光谱法和碘值法分析了在热引发和化学引发方式下,低顺式和高顺式聚丁二烯橡胶接枝苯乙烯聚合物的双键结构和含量,确定了橡胶接枝苯乙烯本体自由基聚合机理。结果表明,热引发时,接枝机理主要是自由基夺取橡胶链上α氢原子;而化学引发时,同时存在自由基与橡胶双键加成的机理。橡胶的结构不同导致接枝点的位置差异,在低顺式聚丁二烯橡胶体系中,自由基以夺取反式-1,4-结构和1,2-乙烯基结构为主,而在高顺式聚丁二烯橡胶体系中。自由基以夺取顺式-1,4-结构为主。     

Rapid ambient temperature living radical polymerization of methyl methacrylate and styrene utilizing sodium hypophosphite as reducing agent

A facile, safe, and inexpensive reducing agent, sodium hypophosphite (NaH₂PO₂·H₂O), has been successfully used to perform ambient temperature living radical polymerizations of methyl methacrylate (MMA) and styrene (St). The rapid radical polymerizations were readily obtained at 25°C, i.e., MMA reached a conversion of ca 90% after 2.5 h, and St reached a conversion of ca 80% after 40 h. The polymerizations of MMA and St exhibited excellent living/controlled nature, as evidenced by pseudo first‐order kinetics of polymerization, linear evolution of molecular weights with increasing monomer conversions, and narrow molecular weight distributions. The various experimental parameters—ligand, solvent, and molar ratio of NaH₂PO₂·H₂O to CuSO₄·5H₂O—were varied to improve the control of polymerization, molecular weight, and molecular weight distribution. ¹H NMR analyses and chain‐extension reactions confirm the high chain‐end functionality of the resultant poly(methyl methacrylate) and polystyrene. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015 , 132, 42123.     

Atom transfer radical polymerization of acrylonitrile

Iron(II) chloride coordinated by succinic acid was first used as the catalyst in 2‐chloropropionitrile‐initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) of acrylonitrile. N,N‐dimethylformamide was used as a solvent to improve the solubility of the ligand. An iron(II) chloride to succinic acid ratio of 0.5 not only gives the best control of molecular weight and its distribution but also provides rather rapid reaction rate. Effects of solvent on polymerization of acrylonitrile were also investigated. The induction period is shorter in N,N‐dimethylformamide than in propylene carbonate and toluene and the rate of the polymerization in N,N‐dimethylformamide is fastest. The molecular weight of polyacrylonitrile agrees reasonably well with the theoretical molecular weight of N,N‐dimethylformamide. The rate of polymerization increases and the induction period becomes shorter with increasing polymerization temperature, and the apparent activation energy was calculated to be 56.5 kJ mol^?1. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 99: 1050–1054, 2006     

Photoinitiation of polymerization of styrene by oxotris(dimethyl dithiocarbamato) vanadium(V)

Oxotris(dimethyl dithiocarbamato) vanadium(V) [VO(S₂CN(CH₃)₂)₃] sensitizes the polymerization of styrene when irradiated by light of λ = 365 nm at 25°C. Under the experimental conditions employed, no retardation occurs, and the rate of initiation is independent of monomer concentration. The mean values of the quantum yield of iniiation (?_i) and polymerization (?_o) are 2.85 × 10^?3 and 6.72 respectively. Spectroscopic analysis shows that initiation occurs predominatly through scission of the N,N-dimethyl dithiocarbamate ligand (—SC(S)N(CH₃)₂) with reduction of vanadium(V) to (IV), and VO (S₂CN(CH₃)₂)₂ is the final photolytic product. A reaction mechanism is proposed based on an intramolecular photoredox reaction which leads to the primary formation of SC(S)N(CH₃)₂ radicals and a vanadium(IV) chelate complex. The rellevant kinetic parameters are evaluated. The polystyrene produced shows a photoactivity when irradiated with UV-light.     

Ability of nitrones of various structures to control the radical polymerization of styrene mediated by in situ formed nitroxides

The ability of several nitrones to control the radical polymerization of styrene at 110 °C has been investigated by high-throughput experimentation. The nitrone/free radical initiator pair dictates the structure of the nitroxide and the alkoxyamine formed in situ, which determines the position of the equilibrium between the active and the dormant species operating in the nitroxide-mediated polymerization. For the styrene polymerization to be controlled, the nitrone must be reacted with 2,2′-azo-bis-isobutyronitrile (AIBN) at 85 °C, prior to addition of styrene and polymerization at 110 °C. The effect of the nitrone structure on the kinetics of the styrene polymerization has been emphasized. Amongst all the nitrones tested, those of the C-phenyl-N-tert-butylnitrone (PBN) type are the most efficient in terms of polymerization rate, control of molecular weight and polydispersity. Electrophilic substitution of the phenyl group of PBN by either an electrodonor or an electroacceptor group has only a minor effect on the polymerization kinetics. Importantly, the polymerization rate is not governed by the thermal polymerization of styrene but by the alkoxyamine formed in situ during the pre-reaction step. The initiation efficiency is, however, very low, consistent with a limited conversion of the nitrone into nitroxide and alkoxyamine.     

Piloting of anionic polymerization of styrene in tetrahydrofurant

Anionic polymerization of styrene in THF with n‐butyllithium/alpha‐methylstyrene initiator is described as a first step in preparation of a styrenic block copoly‐mer. In order to suppress rapid decay of living alpha‐methylstyrene unimers, which occurred at room temperature, the initiation reaction was carried out at ?20(+5)°C. The kinetic parameters of this decay reaction were determined and used for process optimization. By combining experiments with modelling of styrene propagation reaction all key process parameters were defined for l‐L, 38‐L, and 189‐L reactors. A good match was demonstrated between the model and experimental propagation exotherm for semibatch reaction conditions. Overall, it was demonstrated that technical grade THF and styrene could be used at pilot plant scale to prepare well‐defined polymers up to Mn 22 000 via the “living” polymerization mechanism. The resulting polymers had narrow molecular weight distributions (1.06 < Mw/Mn < 1.30).     

Kinetics of Phase Transfer Agent-aided Free–Radical Polymerization of Acrylonitrile and Methyl Methacrylate Using Water-Soluble Initiator

This paper deals with the kinetics of radical polymerization of acrylonitrile (AN) and methyl methacrylate (MMA), using water-soluble potassium peroxydisulphate initiator in the presence of cetyldimethylbenzylammonium chloride (PTC), at 60°C under oxygen-free atmosphere. The role of concentrations of monomer, initiator, catalyst and temperature on the rate of polymerization were ascertained. Based on the results obtained, a suitable kinetic scheme has been proposed to account for the experimental observation.     

Non-steady-state model for kinetics of free radical polymerization, 2. Redox initiation

This work deals with the non-steady-state kinetics of free radical polymerization with redox initiation. Rigorous expressions for the radical concentration, monomer conversion, molecular size distribution function, and number-average and weight-average molecular weights, etc., were derived. The molecular parameters of the resulting polymer were evaluated in relation to the polymerization conditions.     

Effect of the addition of inert or TEMPO‐capped prepolymer on polymerization rate and molecular weight development in the nitroxide‐mediated radical polymerization of styrene

The importance of diffusion‐controlled (DC) effects on controlled radical polymerization (CRP) processes has been rather controversial and usually considered only if there is some mismatch between experimental data and model predictions of polymerization rate and molecular weight averages. Results from an experimental study designed to create conditions in which DC effects may be present from the outset for the bimolecular nitroxide‐mediated radical polymerization (NMRP) of styrene in the presence of 2,2,6,6‐tetramethyl‐1‐piperidinyloxy (TEMPO) and dibenzoyl peroxide (BPO), are presented herein. The experiments consisted of adding size exclusion chromatography (SEC) polystyrene (PS) standards or nitroxyl‐capped PS (of different molecular weights, in several proportions), to a conventional recipe of bimolecular NMRP of styrene, and studying the effect of their presence on polymerization rate and molecular weight development. A previously developed kinetic model for NMRP of styrene was modified to take into account the presence of prepolymer as an inert “solvent,” or as a monomolecular “controller” of high molecular weight. The effects of DC reactions (propagation, termination, activation, and deactivation of polymer radicals) were modeled using conventional free‐volume theory. Reasonably, good agreement between experimental data and model predictions with either modeling approach was obtained. It was concluded that DC effects are weak in the NMRP of styrene, even in the presence of prepolymer. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008     

原子转移自由基法合成乙丙橡胶接枝物中的热聚合研究

采用原子转移自由基聚合法(ATRP)合成了三元乙丙橡胶与苯乙烯的接枝共聚物(EPDM-g-St),动力学研究表明聚合过程为“活性”聚合。在接枝聚合过程中发现了明显的苯乙烯热聚合现象。对接枝聚合中得到的均聚苯乙烯进行表征的结果表明,苯乙烯在ATRP接枝体系中的热聚合过程在一定程度上受到ATRP机理的控制;升高温度和延长反应时间使得热聚合更为显著。     

Evaluation of the confinement effect of nanoclay on the kinetics of styrene atom transfer radical polymerization

The grafting through method was employed to study the effect of nanoclay confinement on the atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) of styrene. An ammonium salt containing a double bond on its structure was used as a clay modifier. Employing ATRP to polymerize styrene in the presence of modified montmorillonite resulted in a finely well‐defined polystyrene nanocomposite. The gas chromatography (GC) results showed the linear increase of ln(M₀/M) versus time, which indicated the controlled behavior of the polymerization. Another confirmation of the living nature of the polymerization was the linear increase of molecular weight against monomer conversion concluded from the gel permeation chromatography (GPC) data. Nanoclay exerted acceleration on the polymerization of free polystyrene chains. The polydispersity indexes of polymer chains increased by the addition of nanoclay. In the case of clay‐attached polystyrene chains, number and weight‐average molecular weights were lower than that of freely dispersed polystyrene chains. The polydispersity index of the clay‐attached chains was higher in respect to the freely dispersed polystyrene chains. The living nature of polymer chains was more elucidated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Exfoliation of the clay layers in the polymer matrix of polystyrene nanocomposite containing the lowest amount of nanoclay has proven by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011     

Solvent effect on TEMPO-mediated living free radical dispersion polymerization of styrene

Living free radical dispersion polymerization of styrene in the presence of 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidin-1-oxyl (TEMPO) and 2,2-azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) was conducted in various glycol media having different solubility parameters. Genuine heterogeneous polymerization nature was observed from the initial stage of the reaction. The solubility parameter of the media was found to significantly influence the living characteristics of the polymerization including the polymerization kinetics and the molecular weight evolution at a fixed concentration of TEMPO. A grafting of stabilizer molecules onto monomer and a possible partitioning of TEMPO between the continuous medium and particle phase were postulated for the deviation of the experimentally obtained molecular weight from the calculated value. For a poor medium for styrene, such as diethylene glycol, the living nature was achieved by increasing the amount of TEMPO. The polystyrene (PS) microsphere was well obtained in all tested glycol media and the average size was increased with enhanced affinity of the media to styrene and with decreasing concentration of TEMPO.     

A kinetic study on bulk thermal polymerization of styrene

The kinetics of bulk thermal polymerization of styrene over the range of 100–200 °C has been studied based on three stage polymerization model (TSPM) in this paper. TSPM plots showed that the whole polymerization course only exhibits two stages, low conversion stage and gel effect stage, which is consistent with TSPM as the reaction temperature is higher than the glass transition temperature of polystyrene. It was found that the critical conversion, x₁, for the transition from low conversion stage to gel effect stage is independent of the reaction temperature and approximately equal to 0.5. In addition, the apparent reaction rate constants obtained from TSPM plots could be correlated to temperature by Arrhenius equation. Expressions predicting number-average molecular weight were also derived according to TSPM. Using the expressions to treat experimental data available in the literature, it was found that number-average molecular weight is independent of the conversion and relative to the reaction temperature at low conversion stage. However, it varies with the conversions at gel effect stage and the variations are more obvious as the reaction temperature rises.     

聚乙烯己内酰胺的制备与表征

以乙烯己内酰胺单体(VCL)为原料,偶氮二异丁腈(AIBN)为引发剂,在水溶液中通过自由基聚合合成了聚乙烯己内酰胺. 考察了引发剂用量、溶剂用量、聚合反应时间和聚合反应温度对产物分子量和产率的影响,阐述了水溶液中自由基聚合的反应机理. 在VCL:AIBN:H2O=1:0.05:15(质量比),75℃下反应5 h的优化工艺条件下,产率能达到97%,并通过凝胶渗透色谱仪测定了聚合物的平均分子量. 以红外光谱和核磁共振对产品结构进行了表征,用分光光度计测定其临界溶解温度为32℃.     

氧化还原体系引发苯乙烯乳液聚合

以不同的过氧化物引发剂分别与硫酸亚铁组成氧化还原引发体系,引发苯乙烯的乳液聚合,研究反应温度和还原剂用量等对聚合的影响.采用气相色谱、三检测体积排除色谱、动态光散射对单体转化率、聚苯乙烯的相对分子质量及其分布和乳胶粒径进行了分析.结果表明:升高温度或增加还原剂用量均会使聚合物的相对分子质量增大,聚合反应速率加快,与常规...     

苯乙烯可逆加成-断裂链转移聚合动力学

为了实现可逆加成-断裂链转移(RAFT)聚合过程中,苯乙烯均聚、高分子量聚苯乙烯的合成及苯乙烯与其他单体共聚时,对苯乙烯转化率、共聚时组成和分子量大小的控制,进行了二硫代苯乙酸-1-苯基乙酯(PEPDTA)调控苯乙烯本体和细乳液聚合动力学分析。在本体聚合中,反应速率慢,链增长自由基与"中间态"自由基的终止反应对聚合速率影响较小,很难合成窄分布、高转化率、高分子量的聚苯乙烯;在细乳液聚合中,反应速率快、转化率高,随着PEPDTA含量增加,乳胶粒数量减少、粒径分布变宽,诱导期和缓聚现象明显;聚合物的数均分子量随转化率线性增长,RAFT试剂浓度越高,分子量分布越窄,反应时间越长,分布越宽。以Smith-Ewart方程为基础,建立了苯乙烯RAFT细乳液聚合动力学模型,模型动力学曲线与实验数据相符合,能较好地预测实验过程。