Polymerization of methyl methacrylate using a metallocene catalyst system

Methyl methacrylate was polymerized with Cp₂YCl(THF) or IVB group metallocene compounds (i.e., Cp₂ZrCl₂ and Cp₂HfCl₂, etc.), in the presence of a Lewis acid like Zn(C₂H₅)₂. The Lewis acid was complexed with methyl methacrylate, which avoided the metallocene compounds being poisoned with a functional group. A living polymerization was promoted through the use of metallocene/MAO/Zn(C₂H₅)₂, which gave tactic poly(methyl methacrylate) with a high molecular weight. The polymer yield increases with polymerization time, which indicates that the propagation rate is zero in order in the concentration of the monomer. The polymer yield increases also with the concentration of Cp₂YCl(THF), which indicates the yttrocene to be the real catalyst. When the polymerization temperature exceeds room temperature, the poly(methyl methacrylate) cannot be synthesized by the Cp₂YCl(THF) catalyst. When the reaction temperature reachs −60 °C, the poly(methyl methacrylate) is high syndiotatic and molecular weight by the Cp₂YCl(THF)/MAO catalyst system. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci A: Polym Chem 38: 1184–1194, 2000     

Polymerization of methyl methacrylate by metallocene imido complexes and tris(pentafluorophenyl)alane

The polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) was investigated with tris(pentafluorophenyl)alane [Al(C₆F₅)₃] and four metallocene imido complexes that varied in the complex symmetry/chirality, metal, and R group in the ?NR moiety, as well as a zirconocene enolate preformed from the imido zirconocene and MMA. This study examined four aspects of MMA polymerization: the effects of the metallocene imido complex structure on the polymerization activity and polymer tacticity, the degree of polymerization control, the elementary reactions of the imido complex with Al(C₆F₅)₃ and MMA, and the polymerization kinetics and mechanism. There was no effect of the imido complex symmetry/chirality on the polymerization stereochemistry; the polymerization followed Bernoullian statistics, producing syndiotactic poly(methyl methacrylate)s with moderate (～70% [rr]) to high (～91% [rr]) syndiotacticity, depending on the polymerization temperature. Polymerization control was demonstrated by the number‐average molecular weight, which increased linearly with an increase in the monomer conversion to 100%, and the relatively small and insensitive polydispersity indices (from 1.21 to 1.17) to conversion. The reactions of the zirconocene imido complex with Al(C₆F₅)₃ and MMA produced the parent base‐free imido complex and the [2 + 4] cycloaddition product (i.e., zirconocene enolate), respectively; the latter product reacted with Al(C₆F₅)₃ to generate the active zirconocenium enolaluminate. The MMA polymerization with the metallocene imido complex and the alane proceeded via intermolecular Michael addition of the enolaluminate to the alane‐activated MMA involved in the propagation step. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 41: 3132–3142, 2003     

Atom transfer radical polymerization of methyl methacrylate catalyzed by cobalt catalyst system

A new catalyst system, CoCl₂/tris(2‐(dimethyl amino) ethyl)amine (Me₆ TREN), was used to catalyze the polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) successfully through atom transfer radical polymerization mechanism. The control over the polymerization was not ideal, the molecular weight distribution of the resulting polymer (PMMA) was relatively broad (M_w/M_n = 1.63–1.80). To improve its controllability, a small amount of hybrid deactivator (FeBr₃/Me₆TREN or CuBr₂/Me₆TREN) was added in the cobalt catalyst system. The results showed that the level of control over the polymerization was significantly improved with the hybrid cobalt–iron (or cobalt–copper) catalyst system; the polydispersity index of the resulting polymer was reduced to a low level (M_w/M_n = 1.15–1.46). Furthermore, with the hybrid cobalt–iron catalyst, the dependence of the propagation rate on the temperature and the copolymerization of methacrylate (MA) with PMMA‐Br as macroinitiator were also investigated. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 43: 5207–5216, 2005     

Polymerization in magnetic field. XVI. Kinetic aspects regarding methyl methacrylate polymerization in high magnetic field

The effect of a high magnetic field of 7 T in the reaction of methyl methacrylate polymerization is emphasized. The intervening magnetokinetic modifications are correlated with the system of radical initiation with benzoyl peroxide, 2,2′‐azobis(2‐methylpropionitrile), 4,4′‐azobis(4‐cyanopentanoic acid), and 1,1′‐azobis(cyclohexane‐1‐carbonitrile). The characterization of the synthesized polymers is correlated with the reaction conditions. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 42: 5678–5686, 2004     

苯乙烯-甲基丙烯酸甲酯的高温阴离子溶液共聚

以正丁基锂(n-BuLi)为引发剂、四氢呋喃(THF)为极性调节剂,采用具有较大空间位阻和特定电荷环境的P配合物作为抑制剂,在80℃下实现了苯乙烯(St)与甲基丙烯酸甲酯(MMA)的阴离子嵌段共聚.采用GPC、FT-IR、1H-NMR等手段对共聚物的结构及分子量进行了分析.结果表明:共聚物中各链节的分子量与设计分子量接...     

Polymerization mechanism of trimethylene carbonate carried out with zinc(II) acetylacetonate monohydrate

The proposed mechanism of initiation and course of ring‐opening polymerization of cyclic trimethylene carbonate (TMC) involving zinc(II) acetylacetonate is in accordance with the mechanism of monomer activation. At the first stage of the process, coordination of carbonate to Zn(Acac)₂ · H₂O complex occurs with the release of weakly coordinated water molecules. This free water molecule reacts with active TMC–Zn(Acac)₂ complex. The reaction results in the formation of propanediol and CO₂ emission. During further stages of the investigated process, the formed propanediols, or later the oligomeric diols produced with polymerization, are cocatalysts of the chain propagation reaction. The chain propagation occurs because of repeating activation of the TMC monomer through the creation of an active structure resulting in the exchange/transfer reaction between the zinc complex and the monomer, with its following attachment to the hydroxyl groups, carbonate ring opening, and formation of the carbonic unit of polymer chain. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2011     

Synthesis of Poly(methyl methacrylate) Nanosize Particles by Differential Microemulsion Polymerization

Poly(methyl methacrylate) nanosize particles were synthesized by a differential microemulsion polymerization process. Sodium dodecylsulfate and ammonium persulfate were used as the surfactant and initiator, respectively. The effects of reaction conditions on the particle size have been investigated. A particle size of less than 20 nm in diameter has been achieved with surfactant/monomer and surfactant/water weight ratios of 1:18 and 1:120, i.e. much milder conditions than those previously reported in the literature.

TEM image of nanoparticles prepared via differential microemulsion polymerization.     

Anionic polymerization of methyl methacrylate initiated with molybdenum and tungsten chloride/organolithium/triisobutylaluminum systems

Molybdenum chloride (MoCl₅ or 1a ) and tungsten chloride (WCl₆ or 1b )/phenyllithium (PhLi)/triisobutylaluminum (iBu₃Al) systems were found to be quite effective for controlling the anionic polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA), affording high molecular weight poly(methyl methacrylate)s (PMMAs; number‐average molecular weight > 100,000) with narrow molecular weight distributions (weight‐average molecular weight/number‐average molecular weight < 1.25) quantitatively at 0 °C for 1 h in toluene. Matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionization time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry (MALDI‐TOF MS) analyses of PMMAs obtained with the 1a and 1b /organolithium (RM; n‐butyllithium, PhLi)/iBu₃Al systems revealed that the initiation of MMA with the systems occurred by a nucleophilic attack of H^? to the monomer. In addition, the MALDI‐TOF MS analyses indicated that the presence of iBu₃Al was responsible for the controlled polymerization by improving the uniformity of the polymerization with respect to initiation and termination and by preventing a backbiting reaction. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 40: 4302–4315, 2002     

Novel catalyst system of MCl2/FeCl3·6H2O/PPh3 (M = Ni,Co, or Mn) for the atom transfer radical polymerization of methyl methacrylate

MCl₂ (M = Ni, Co, Sn, or Mn) and PPh₃ together acted as a catalyst for the radical polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) in the presence of ethyl 2‐bromoisobutyrate as an initiator. The four systems all led to conventional radical polymerizations, which yielded polymers with a weight‐average molecular weight/number‐average molecular weight (M_w/M_n) ratio greater than 2.0 and became well controlled when a certain amount of FeCl₃·6H₂O was added. The polymerizations of MMA catalyzed by these four FeCl₃‐modified catalyst systems provided well‐defined polymers with low polydispersities (M_w/M_n < 1.28). © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 43: 2625–2631, 2005     

Growth of poly(methyl methacrylate) particles in three-component cationic microemulsions

Polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) has been studied in ternary microemulsions which were stabilized by tetradecyltrimethylammonium bromide (TTAB) or stearyltrimethylammonium chloride (STAC). The sizes of MMA-swollen polymer particles (R_h) increased continuously during polymerization. This is in contrast to that of the styrene system, where R_h increased very rapidly to a maximum and then decreased continuously towards a constant value. The continuous growth of PMMA particles at 60°C are discussed. The stability of PMMA latexes increased with increasing the hydrophobic chain length of the cationic surfactant used. Traces of the coagulations of PMMA particles in the TTAB system can be seen from TEM. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Anionic polymerization of methyl methacrylate initiated with late transition‐metal halides/organolithium/triisobutylaluminum systems

Anionic polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) initiated with late transition‐metal halides [manganese chloride (MnCl₂), iron dichloride (FeCl₂), iron trichloride (FeCl₃), cobalt chloride (CoCl₂), or nickel bromide (NiBr₂)]/organolithium [nButyllithium (nBuLi) or phenyllithium (PhLi)]/triisobutylaluminum (iBu₃Al) systems is described. Except for the system with NiBr₂, the polymerizations of MMA afforded narrow molecular weight distribution poly(methyl methacrylate)s (PMMAs) with high molecular weights in quantitative yields at 0 °C in toluene. Matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionization time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry (MALDI‐TOF MS) analyses of the PMMAs obtained by the systems with FeCl₂, FeCl₃, and CoCl₂ revealed that the polymers had hydrogen (H) at both chain ends. Accordingly, the reaction of the transition‐metal halides with the organolithium in the presence of iBu₃Al should result in the formation of transition‐metal hydride [M‐H]^? species, which was nucleophilic enough to initiate the MMA polymerization. Because the presence of a six‐membered cyclic structure resulting from backbiting was confirmed from the MALDI‐TOF MS analyses of the PMMA obtained with the metal halide (FeCl₂, FeCl₃, or CoCl₂)/organolithium systems in the absence of iBu₃Al, the introduction of H at the ω‐chain end indicated that iBu₃Al should prevent the backbiting. However, the MnCl₂/nBuLi/iBu₃Al initiating system gave PMMAs bearing H at the α chain end and six‐membered cyclic structure at the ω chain end. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 41: 1962–1977, 2003     

Cobalt complex bearing β‐ketoamine ligand: syntheses,structure, catalytic behavior for styrene and methyl methacrylate polymerization

Cobalt complex based on β‐ketoamine ligand [(Z)‐4‐((2,5‐dimethylphenylamino) (phenyl)methylene)‐3‐methyl‐1‐phenyl‐1H‐pyrazol‐5(4H)‐one] was successfully synthesized. The produced catalyst showed satisfactory activities in the cobalt‐mediated radical polymerization of styrene and methyl methacrylate with the common initiator of AIBN. The resulting polymerizations have the characteristics of living radical polymerization and displayed a nearly linear correlation between the number‐average molecular weight and monomer conversion. Low polydispersity was obtained for all polymerizations, and the polydispersity index decreased with the increase of conversion. These improvements facilitate the implementation of styrene and methacrylate cobalt‐mediated radical polymerization, and open the door to the scale‐up of the process. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

High polymerization of methyl methacrylate with organonickel/MMAO systems

A series of nickel complexes, including Ni(acac)₂, (C₅H₅)Ni(η³‐allyl), and [NiMe₄Li₂(THF)₂]₂, that were activated with modified methylaluminoxane (MMAO) exhibited high catalytic activity for the polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) but showed no catalytic activity for the polymerization of ethylene and 1‐olefins. The resulting polymers exhibited rather broad molecular weight distributions and low syndiotacticities. In contrast to these initiators, the metallocene complexes (C₅H₅)₂Ni, (C₅Me₅)₂Ni, (Ind)₂Ni, and (Me₃SiC₅H₄)₂Ni provided narrower molecular weight distributions at 60 °C when these initiator were activated with MMAO. Half‐metallocene complexes such as (C₅H₅)NiCl(PPh₃), (C₅Me₅)NiCl(PPh₃), and (Ind)NiCl(PPh₃) produced poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) with much narrower molecular weight distributions when the polymerization was carried out at 0 °C. Ni[1,3‐(CF₃)₂‐acac]₂ generated PMMA with high syndiotacticity. The NiR(acac)(PPh₃) complexes (R = Me or Et) revealed high selectivity in the polymerization of isoprene that produced 1,2‐/3,4‐polymer at 0 °C exclusively, whereas the polymerization at 60 °C resulted in the formation of cis‐1,4‐rich polymers. The polymerization of ethylene with Ni(1,3‐tBu₂‐acac)₂ and Ni[1,3‐(CF₃)₂‐acac]₂ generated oligo‐ethylene with moderate catalytic activity, whereas the reaction of ethylene with Ni(acac)₂/MMAO produced high molecular weight polyethylene. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci A: Polym Chem 38: 4764–4775, 2000     

异戊二烯-甲基丙烯酸甲酯的阴离子嵌段共聚合

在四氢呋喃（THF）与环己烷的混合溶剂中,以正丁基锂（n-BuLi）为引发剂,采用具有较大空间位阻和特定电荷环境的P配合物为添加剂,实现了异戊二烯（Ip）和甲基丙烯酸甲酯（MMA）的阴离子嵌段共聚。分别采用GPC、^1H—NMR对聚合物的结构进行了分析表征。结果表明：随着THF与环己烷体积比的增大,单体的转化率呈现下降的趋势;同时空间位阻较大的P配合物的加入,堵塞了正、负离子对之间的部分通道,有效地抑制了MMA段聚合副反应的发生,在易于工业化的0℃之下成功合成了分子量分布窄（1．21）的聚异戊二烯一聚甲基丙烯酸甲酯嵌段共聚物（PI—b—PMMA）,并且共聚物中PI嵌段以3,4结构链节为主。     

Ultrasonically initiated emulsion polymerization of methyl methacrylate

The ultrasonically initiated emulsion polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) was investigated. Experimental results show that sodium dodecyl sulfonate (SDS) surfactant plays a very important role in obtaining a high polymer yield, because in the absence of SDS, monomer conversion is near zero. Thus, the surfactant serves as an initiator and as interfacial modifier in this system (MMA/H₂O), and the monomer conversion increases significantly with increasing SDS concentration. An increase in the reactor temperature also leads to an increase in the monomer conversion. An appropriate increase in the N₂ purging rate also leads to higher conversion. The conversion of MMA decreases with increasing monomer concentration because of the higher viscosity of the system. With the experimental results, optimized reaction conditions were obtained. Accordingly, a high monomer conversion of about 67% and a high molecular weight of several millions can be obtained in a period of about 30 min. Furthermore, transmission electron micrographs show that the latex particles prepared are nanosized, indicating a promising technique for preparing nanoscale latex particles with a small amount of surfactant. In conclusion, a promising technique for ultrasonically initiated emulsion polymerization has been successfully performed. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 39: 3356–3364, 2001     

Amino alcohol additives for the fast living radical polymerization of methyl methacrylate with RuCl2(PPh3)3

A series of amino alcohols [e.g., R₂N (CH₂)_n OH (R = Me, Et, etc.; n = 2, 3, or 4)] were examined as additives for rate enhancement and finer reaction control in the living radical polymerization of methyl methacrylate with RuCl₂(PPh₃)₃. In general, these additives were more effective in acceleration than the corresponding amines as well as mixtures of an amine and a nonsubstituted alcohol, diamines, or diols. For example, 2-(diethylamino)ethanol significantly accelerated the polymerization (23 h, 91% at 60 °C) and gave polymers with narrower molecular weight distributions [weight-average molecular weight/number-average molecular weight (M_w/M_n) = 1.23], with respect to the system without the additive (550 h, 95%, M_w/M_n ∼ 2.0 at 80 °C; no polymerization at 60 °C). ¹H NMR analysis showed the interaction between the amino alcohols and RuCl₂(PPh₃)₃, which apparently formed a more active catalyst. Amino alcohols were also effective in Ru(Ind)Cl(PPh₃)₂-catalyzed systems (96% in 8 h at 80 °C). High-molecular-weight poly(methyl methacrylate) (M_n ∼ 1.1 × 10⁵) was synthesized with the RuCl₂(PPh₃)₃/2-(diethylamino)ethanol system, in which the polymerization reached 97% conversion in 4 h. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 41: 3597–3605, 2003     

Preparation of methyl methacrylate and glycidyl methacrylate copolymerized nonporous particles

Particles of methyl methacrylate (MMA) and glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) copolymer having narrow size distributions were prepared by the method of dispersion polymerization. Results from the analysis of particle porosity and the correlation of specific surface area with the reciprocal of particle diameter suggest that the prepared particles were nonporous. The particle size was found to decrease from 4.2 to 2.1 μm with increasing the mass ratio of GMA/MMA from 0.1 to 0.75. Polymer particles having an average diameter falling in this range are suitable for being employed as the stationary phase in protein chromatography. The decrease in particle size when GMA was present could be due to the increase in adsorption rate of poly(vinyl pyrrolidone). The oligomer chains that were rich in GMA were more active for adsorbing and grafting PVP, compared with the moiety of MMA. An increase in the GMA/MMA ratio also leaded to a decrease in epoxy‐group density on the particle surface, since the reactivity of GMA was greater than that of MMA. Results of this work suggest that the influence of GMA/MMA mass ratio on the particle size and surface functionality of the nonporous particles was very significant. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci A: Polym Chem 37: 1457–1463, 1999     

甲基丙烯酸甲酯原子转移自由基聚合等规度研究

在0～100℃温度范围内,由原子转移自由基聚合方法,采用助催化和非助催化体系,引发甲基丙烯酸甲酯聚合,利用¹³CNMR测定聚甲基丙烯酸甲酯的等规度.发现原子转移自由基聚合仍以间同立构为主,随着聚合温度的升高间同立构等规度降低,与通常自由基聚合对有规立构控制特征相似.助催化剂异丙醇铝和活性端羰基配位,对聚合物的立构规整性有一定的影响.