The Effect of the Synthetic Conditions on the Deposition and Distribution of Copper Complexes on Polymer Supports

The influence of conditions (e.g., ratios of components, temperature etc.) on the reaction of Cu(OCOCH₃)₂·2H₂O with polyethylene grafted-polyacrylic on the amount of the metal and the composition of the immobilized Cu(II) complexes was studied. The concentration dependence obeys the Langmuir law. Analysis of the data leads to an evaluation of the stability constant for the Cu(II) complexes (K=300 l/mole at 333 K). The constant corresponds to a Cu(II) fixation value, k=0.35 mole/l (22.22 mg Cu(II)/g). The multistage fixation mechanism for Cu(II) complex formation was demonstrated by the marked atom technique. Cu(II) is fixed by one carboxylate group (to 16 mol% of the supported Cu(II), K ₁=16×10^–2 mole/g) and by two carboxylate groups (K ₂=2.54×10^–3 mole/g) of the grafted ligands. The PE-gr-PAA–Cu(II) system mimics the situation-insoluble support-soluble functional polymer covering and realizes the advantages of both the soluble and the three-dimensional crosslinked polymer. Steady-state magnetic susceptibility measurements and ESR spectroscopy were used to study the distribution of cupric ion attached to a polyethylene-grafted poly(acrylic acid) support. The existence of three types of cupric ion complexes was demonstrated: (1) isolated complexes, (2) complexes bonded by dipole–dipole interactions, and (3) clusters with strong exchange interactions. The mean distances between the isolated ions (¯r22–15 Å) and between the dipole–bound complexes (¯r _agreg7 Å) were estimated. The results obtained were compared to the data for other immobilized catalysts. Preliminary results on the fixation of bimetallic Cu(II) and Pd(II) complexes to the polymers as well as on their distributions were obtained.