Thermo-oxidative degradation of some elastomers with a high content of 3,4 isoprene units

New elastomers with high content of 3,4 isoprene units have been developed during the last decades in an attempt to ensure superior performances of the final products and the present study is devoted to the investigation of some peculiarities of their ageing behaviour. On thermo-oxidative degradation, 3,4 isoprene units are less affected in comparison to cis-1, 4 and trans-1, 4 isoprene units. The degradation process consists mainly in splitting of the main chains at temperatures of 80–100 °C while at higher temperatures (120–130 °C) branching becomes a significant modification and this reaction is enhanced for the polymers containing preponderantly 3,4 units. Such behaviour leads to the fact that the processability of polymers containing high amounts of 1,2 and 1,3 isoprene units is less affected by thermo-oxidative degradation in comparison with cis-1, 4-polyisoprene, which could be explained by the fact that large amounts of double bonds are not present in the backbone of macromolecules but in the pendent groups.     

The melting points of chain polymers

The molecular characteristics which determine the melting points of high polymer crystals are considered, and it is shown that the properties of monomeric crystals often throw light on those of the polymers. The principal factors controlling melting points appear to be molar cohesion energy (of the whole molecule for monomers, or per chain unit for polymers), molecular flexibility (due to rotation round bonds), and molecular shape effects. Figures for the cohesion energy increments of a number of chain units and substituent groups are given, and melting points of polymer series are correlated with cohesion energy per chain unit. The flexibility factor is less easy to assess; barriers to rotation in appropriate monomer molecules are relevant, but available data are very rough. The approach therefore is mainly by empirical and comparative methods. When plotted against cohesion energy per chain unit, the melting points of various series of aromatic polyesters and polyurethans fall within the same band, while those of the polyamides lie on the whole higher and those of the aliphatic polyesters, polyethers, polythioethers and polydisulfides much lower. The differences are attributed to difference of molecular flexibility arising from the presence of easily rotating O?C, S?C and S?S bonds. The low melting points of rubber and other unsaturated polymers are attributed to the fact (which can now be regarded as definitely established by independent evidence) that rotation round single bonds which are adjacent to double C? C bonds is easier than in saturated chains. Easily rotating bonds which are inclined to each other, as in cis isomers, confer greater chain flexibility than the parallel bonds in trans isomers, and thus lead to lower melting points. The marked odd-even effects in saturated molecules which run through the whole of organic chemistry (the even members always melting higher than the odd) are attributed to similar effects arising from the fact that the end bonds of an odd CH₂ sequence are inclined to each other while those at the ends of an even sequence are parallel.     

A New acid-base indicator

The Fe(III)-1,2-dihydroxybenzene-3,5-disulfonic acid complex absorption characteristics are pH dependent. An intensive study has shown that these characteristics are reversible and reproducible.This system is, therefore, well-suited for use as a pH indicator. It serves for double indicator titrations (acid → base; base → acid) and as a universal wide-range indicator.     

Crosslinked polystyrene with improved mechanical properties

The synthesis of some divinyl monomers—bis(vinylphenyl)ethane ( 2 ), bis(vinylbenzyloxy)hexane ( 3a ), and bis(vinylbenzyloxy)dodecane ( 3b ) is reported. Copolymers of the new monomers and styrene were evaluated as an alternative to divinylbenzene-crosslinked polymers for use as matrices and absorbents. The mechanical properties and the amount of residual double bonds in the copolymers were compared. It was found that the new copolymers, unlike the divinylbenzene-crosslinked polymers, retained their mechanical strength even at high crosslinking degrees. Stress at break values of 79, 68, and 18 N/mm² were found for the polymers crosslinked with 20 mol % of 3a, 2 , and divinylbenzene; 5, 25 and 45% of the divinyl units in these polymers were left as pendant double bonds. Porous styrene– 2 copolymers were synthesized and shown to have lower surface areas than the corresponding divinylbenzene-crosslinked polymers. The pore size distribution showed that this was due to the absence of the smallest pores which are found in the divinylbenzene-crosslinked polymers in between heavily crosslinked nodules. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Polymerization of tert-alkylacetylenes by Mo- and W-based catalysts

Polymerization of three tert-alkylacetylenes (3,3-dimethyl-1-pentyne, 3,3-dimethyl-1-nonyne, 1-adamantylacetylene) by Mo- and W-based catalysts provided new polymers in virtually quantitative yields. In contrast, Ziegler catalysts did not polymerize these monomers. Every polymer had a form of white solid, and had alternating double bonds along the main chain. Though some of poly(3,3-dimethyl-1-pentyne)s contained a toluene-insoluble fraction, the polymer was totally soluble when proper polymerization conditions were chosen. The molecular weights of soluble fractions were as high as 3 × 10⁵. Poly(3,3-dimethyl-1-nonyne) was also partly insoluble in toluene, and the quantity of soluble fraction was less than that of poly(3,3-dimethyl-1-pentyne). The geometric structure of these two polymers could be controlled by the choice of suitable polymerization conditions. Poly(1-adamantylacetylene) was insoluble in any organic solvents. Copolymerization of 1-adamantylacetylene with suitable comonomers afforded soluble copolymers.     

The polymerization of 1,4-pentadiene to [3.3.1]bicyclo-linked chains

1, 4-Pentadiene has been polymerized by Ziegler-Natta catalysts to give amorphous polymers which are up to 64 wt.-% soluble. The polymers all have residual unsaturation which is substantially less than one double bond per mer, some as low as 0.1 double bond per mer. The polymerizations proceed by an unusual double inter-, double intramolecular cyclopolymerization mechanism leading to the formation of [3.3.1] bicyclic repeat units. Some main-chain (internal) unsaturation as well as pendant-group (external) unsaturation is observed. The latter results from incompletely cyclized 1,4-pentadiene units. The former is due to some concurrent isomerization of 1,4- to 1,3 pentadiene, which then copolymerizes with the 1,4 diene. The extent of isomerization varied with the catalyst system used. The soluble polymer fractions were brittle for internal unsaturations of less than about 0.05 double bond per mer and were viscous for higher values. The insoluble fractions were brittle and are believed to be lightly crosslinked.     

Structural features of disubstituted polyacetylenes with bulky substituents at double bonds

The structural features of polyacetylenes carrying two substituents at double bonds with the general formula [-C(CH₃)=CR-] _n , where R = Si(CH₃)₃, -Ge(CH₃)₃, or CH(CH₃)₂, are studied. It is shown that the experimental IR and Raman spectra of the polymers and the theoretically calculated vibrational spectra for the model polymers consisting of three units coincide well with experimental data. All bands in the IR spectra are interpreted. The potential curves of internal rotation are calculated and constructed; high values of rotation barriers indicate a high rigidity of chains for all polymers of interest. The orthogonal arrangement of neighboring monomer units and, as a result, the absence of electron-density conjugation over the polymer chain are revealed. Charges on atoms and electron density on bonds of the monomer unit obtained from theoretical calculations indicate the presence of strong polarization of all bonds, including the -C=C- bond. This effect causes a shift in the frequencies of stretching vibrations due to double bonds in the IR spectra of polyacetylenes with Si- and Ge-containing side substituents toward the longwave region. For polyacetylene with hydrocarbon side substituents -CH(CH₃)₂, such polarization is absent.     

Synthesis and properties of two new series of isomeric liquid crystalline polyesters with conjugated double bonds

Two homologous series of flexible main chain liquid crystalline polyesters with isomeric mesogenic groups containing conjugated double bonds, were synthesized and studied by differential scanning calorimetry and optical microscopy. One series (S1) has the p-phenylene-diacryloyloxydibenzoyl moiety as a mesogenic unit. The other (S2) has the terephtaloyl dioxydicinnamoyl moiety as a mesogenic unit. The reactivity of the conjugated double bonds of the p-phenylenediacryloxy unit, at the temperature of mesophase formation, impedes the stability of liquid crystalline mesophases of polymers of series (S1). Two low molecular weight analogues of polymers were also prepared and their properties compared with those of polymers of similar structure. The two model compounds form stable smectic mesophases over a wide range of temperatures, which shows the high mesomorphogenic ability of both mesogenic units.     

Polyethylene Incorporating Diels–Alder Comonomers: A “Trojan Horse” Strategy for Chemically Recyclable Polyolefins

Polyolefins with periodic unsaturation in the backbone chain are sought after for synthesizing chemically recyclable polymers or telechelic polyolefin macromonomers. Here we introduce a bottom-up synthesis of unsaturated high-density polyethylene (HDPE) via copolymerization of ethylene with dimethyl 7-oxabicyclo[2.2.1]hepta-2,5-diene-3,5-dicarboxylate followed by post-polymerization retro-Diels–Alder to unveil hidden double bonds in the polymer backbone. The incorporation of this “Trojan Horse” comonomer was varied and a series of unsaturated HDPE polymers with block lengths of 1.2, 1.9, and 3.5 kDa between double bonds was synthesized. Cross metathesis of unsaturated HDPE samples with 2-hydroxyethyl acrylate yielded telechelic ester terminated PE macromonomers suitable for the preparation of ester-linked PE. These materials were depolymerized and repolymerized, making them suitable candidates for chemical recycling. The ester-linked PE displayed thermal and mechanical properties comparable to commercial HDPE.     

Polypyrrole-calcion film as a membrane and solid-contact in an indicator electrode for potentiometric titrations

This paper shows the application of conducting polymers (CPs) for constructing potentiometric indicator electrodes. Two types of polypyrrole (PPy)-based calcium sensors are presented, one sensor with PPy-calcion film as the active part and the other sensor with PPy-calcion as a solid-state contact coated with a conventional membrane selective towards calcium ions. It is shown that the PPy-calcion film, due to the complexing properties of calcion ensuring high loading of the film with calcium, is sufficiently selective to be used as the active part or as a mediating layer of the indicator electrode. The electrode, with PPy-calcion film as the active part, was used as the indicator electrode in potentiometric titrations of calcium in mixed solvents, where conventional PVC-based electrode can not be used. For the first time, the practical applicability of PPy-based electrodes in titrations is demonstrated.     

N-苯基-双环[2.2.1]庚-5-烯-2,3-二甲酰亚胺的热聚合反应

以核磁共振波谱和溴加成法分析N-苯基-双环[2.2.1]庚-5-烯-2,3-二甲酰亚胺的聚合物的化学结构。聚合物分子具有含内、外式双环[2.2.1]庚-5-烯双键和环戊烯双键的结构单元。半定量地测定了各类双键的含量。分子的饱和链段有5,7-位相连的外式构型和5,6-位相连的内式构型的双环[2.2.1]庚烷的结构单元。结果表明,聚合过程中有构型的转变,重排反应,以及不同的链增长途径。     

Using the new in–in method for the synthesis of polyisoprene/polystyrene heteroarm star polymers

The basis of the two‐step in–in method is as follows: star polymers with poly(divinyl benzene) cores, synthesized by the arm‐first method, include many unreacted double bonds in their core, and these double bonds can be attacked by the carbanions of some monomers such as styrene and dienes. In this work, linear polyisoprene chains were used to attack the double bonds existing in the poly(divinyl benzene) cores of polystyrene star polymers, so that a heteroarm star polymer with polystyrene and polyisoprene arms was synthesized. It was later well characterized with size exclusion chromatography, light scattering, viscometry, UV spectroscopy, dynamic mechanical thermal analysis, and ¹H NMR. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 41: 135–142, 2003     

Die Copolymerisation von Vinylacetat und Divinyladipat. Vernetzung und Cyclisierung

The reactivity ratios for the vinyl acetate-divinyl adipate system are determined. Both valuesr _{V Ac} andr _{DV A} are near to unity. The reactivity of the pendent double bond is very low and soluble polymers are formed far over the critical conversion calculated with anr-value of the pendent double bonds equal to unity. Contrary to this a high portion of intramolecular cyclization occurs, presumably leading to chain units of the type amounting to 10% of the total number of divinyl adipate units in the chain in systems with an initial monomer concentration of 95% and to 23% in systems with a monomer concentration of 50%. The reactivity ratio of the pendent double bond is estimated. The main reason for the high conversion for gel formation is the low rate of intermolecular reaction of pendent double bonds. In this respect cyclization plays a minor role.     

Cyclopolymerization. XXI. Radical cyclopolymerization of n,n-diallylmethacrylamide

N,N-Diallylmethacrylamide (DAMA) was synthesized and its radical cyclopolymerizability was investigated. Polymerizations of DAMA were found to proceed according to the standard kinetic equation for radical polymerization except for the diffusion controlled termination reactions owing to higher viscosity of DAMA, in spite of the fact that it contains two allyl groups. DAMA yields polymers with slightly higher degree of cyclization than 50% in dilute solution polymerization. With increasing monomer concentration, the degree of cyclization decreases gradually and it becomes slightly lower value than 50% in concentrated solution polymerizations. It was found that about 86% of pendant unsaturations is allyl group and the rest is methacryloyl group. Structural studies on repeating units showed that possibility for the presence of bicyclic structures (those formed with consumption of three double bonds involved in DAMA) and structural units with two pendant unsaturations (those formed with one double bond in DAMA participated in polymerization) is extremely small. Main repeating cyclic unit was assigned to five-membered monocyclic lactam with an allyl group on its nitrogen, the content of which is estimated to be approximately 86% based on the allyl content. The main fraction of the rest of repeating cyclic structures was attributed to monocyclic pirolidine ring with a methacryloyl group on its nitrogen. These structural investigations and ESR studies of DAMA revealed that the methacryloyl group of DAMA is less reactive than its allyl group as in the case of N-methyl-N-allylmethacrylamide which has already been reported. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Controlling the structure of sequence‐defined poly(phosphodiester)s for optimal MS/MS reading of digital information

Digital polymers are monodisperse chains with a controlled sequence of co‐monomers, defined as letters of an alphabet, and are used to store information at the molecular level. Reading such messages is hence a sequencing task that can be efficiently achieved by tandem mass spectrometry. To improve their readability, structure of sequence‐controlled synthetic polymers can be optimized, based on considerations regarding their fragmentation behavior. This strategy is described here for poly(phosphodiester)s, which were synthesized as monodisperse chains with more than 100 units but exhibited extremely complex dissociation spectra. In these polymers, two repeating units that differ by a simple H/CH₃ variation were defined as the 0 and 1 bit of the ASCII code and spaced by a phosphate moiety. They were readily ionized in negative ion mode electrospray but dissociated via cleavage at all phosphate bonds upon collisional activation. Although allowing a complete sequence coverage of digital poly(phosphodiester)s, this fragmentation behavior was not efficient for macromolecules with more than 50 co‐monomers, and data interpretation was very tedious. The structure of these polymers was then modified by introducing alkoxyamine linkages at appropriate location throughout the chain. A first design consisted of placing these low dissociation energy bonds between each monomeric bit: while cleavage of this sole bond greatly simplified MS/MS spectra, efficient sequencing was limited to chains with up to about 50 units. In contrast, introduction of alkoxyamine bonds between each byte (i.e. a set of eight co‐monomers) was a more successful strategy. Long messages (so far, up to 8 bytes) could be read in MS³ experiments, where single‐byte containing fragments released during the first activation stage were further dissociated for sequencing. The whole sequence of such byte‐truncated poly(phosphodiester)s could be easily re‐constructed based on a mass tagging system which permits to determine the original location of each byte in the chain. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Infinite Twisted Polycatenanes

Poly[n]catenanes have exceptional mechanical bonding properties that give them tremendous potential for use in the development of molecular machines and soft materials. Synthesizing these compounds has, however, proven to be a formidable challenge. Herein, we describe a concise method for the construction of twisted polycatenanes. Our approach involves using preorganized double helicates as templates, linked crosswise in a linear fashion by either silver ions or triple bonds. By using this approach, we successfully synthesized twisted polycatenanes with both coordination and covalent bonding employing Ag(I) ions and ethynylene units, respectively, as the linkages and leveraging the same Ag(I)-templated double helicate in both cases. Synthesis with Ag(I) ions formed a single-crystalline one-dimensional (1D) coordination poly[n]catenane, and synthesis using ethynylene units generated 1D fibers which self-assembled with solvents to form a gel. Our results confirm the potential of multi-stranded metallohelicates for creating sophisticated mechanically interlocked molecules and polymers, which could pave the way for exploration in the realms of molecular nanotopology and materials design.     

Electrochemical characterization and analytical application of arsenopyrite mineral in non-aqueous solutions by voltammetry and potentiometry

Based on the cyclic voltammetric method, in the present study we have employed carbon paste for arsenopyrite mineral characterization in non-aqueous solution. Arsenopyrite yields well-defined cyclic voltammetric responses with well-defined oxidation (in the potential region from −0.7 to 0.7 V, versus Ag/AgCl) and reduction (from −1.0 to 0.8 V) peaks using this electrode. In addition, arsenopyrite mineral was studied as a new indicator electrode for the potentiometric titrations of acids (benzoic, anthranilic and salicylic acids) and bases (N,N′-diphenylguanidine, tributylamine and collidine) in acetonitrile and propionitrile. Potassium hydroxide, tetrabutylammonium hydroxide (TBAH) and perchloric acid proved to be very suitable titrating agents for these titrations.The investigated electrode showed a linear dynamic response for p-toluenesulfonic acid concentrations in the range 0.1-0.001 M, with a Nernstian slope of 38.5 mV in acetonitrile and 44.6 mV in propionitrile. The electrode showed a relatively fast response time and can be used without any time limit or without considerable divergence in potentials. The response time of the electrode was less than 10 s in both solvents. The standard deviation of the determination of the investigated acids and bases was less than 0.6% from those obtained with a glass electrode.The advantages of the electrodes are long-term stability, fast response and reproducibility, while the sensors are easy to prepare and are of low cost.     

Photorearrangements of hydrocarbon polymers with pendant double bonds

A study was made of the microstructural changes that occur in ultraviolet irradiation under vacuum of thin films of 1,2-poly(cis-1,4-hexadiene) (CHD), 1,2-poly(trans-1,4-hexadiene) (THD), 1,2-poly(trans-1,3-pentadiene) (TPD), equibinary (1,2,-1,4) polybutadiene (EB), and equibinary (3,4-1,4) polyisoprene (EI). These polymers—all containing pendant double bonds—undergo important photoinduced loss of unsaturation, presumably through cyclization of the double bonds, by analogy to the previously reported photocyclization of 1,2-polybutadiene (VB) and 3,4-polyisoprene (VI)films. For the equibinary polymers, which contain internal as well as external (or pendant) double bonds, the loss of unsaturation is considered to involve photocyclization of 1,2-1,4 and 1,2-1,2 dyads in EB and of 3,4-1,4 and 3,4-3,4 dyads in EI. Accompanying thecyclization process in CHD, THD, and TPD is a direct photochemical cis-trans isomerization of ? CH?CH? double bonds analogous to that originally noted for 1,4-polybutadiene. The photorearrangements in the above polymers with pendant double bonds were compared to the corresponding thermally induced rearrangements reported previoulsy;for VB and VI, in particular, the thermal, photo-and radiation-induced cycli-zations were found to be very similar, possibly having a common nonradical, nonionic mechanism involving excited double bonds.     

Chemistry of polybutadiene—iron carbonyl systems

The treatment of polybutadienes with iron carbonyls results in formation of polymers containing tricarbonyl(conjugated diene)iron units [C₈H₁₂Fe(CO)₃] and also results in geometrical isomerization of free double bonds. Heating of the iron carbonyl-containing polymers gives ferromagnetic products with enhanced thermal stability. The incorporation of iron carbonyl groups into the polymer is favored by basic solvents and high temperatures, the geometrical isomerization by acidic solvents and low temperatures. Steric factors are powerful in determining the rate of isomerization.