Investigation of the mechanism of living cationic polymerization of isobutylene by B11 NMR spectroscopy

Summary The living carbocationic polymerization of isobutylene initiated by tri-cumyl-ether (1)/BCl₃ and tricumyl-acetate(2)/BCl₃ was investigated by B¹¹ NMR spectroscopy in the presence and absence of DMSO. With BCl₃, 1 yields tri-cumyl-chloride and BCl₂OMe due to fast exchange reaction, while 2 forms complexes. If the 1/BCl₃ mixture contains DMSO, well defined complexes can be detected, i.e., DMSO.BCl₃ and BCl₂OMe.DMSO. In the system 2/BCl₃/DMSO neutral complexes with broad NMR signals are formed. In the presence of isobutylene (real polymerization mixture) the same complexes can be detected.