1H NMR spectroscopic study of theert-butyl chloride—aluminum bromide cationic initiating system

The interaction oftert-butyl chloride with aluminum bromide in methylene dibromide at −30°C leads to the formation of two types of adducts, which give signals with δ 2.4 and 3.2 in the¹H NMR spectra in addition to that of free alkyl halide. these signals are attributed to a polarized complex (PC) and ion pair (IP), respectively. An excess of AlBr₃ shifts the equilibria toward IP. The latter contains more AlBr₃ than the polarized complex. Based on the spectral data, we calculated the limiting values of some equilibrium constants. The ability of AlBr₃ to solvate counterions is consistent with the results of isobutylene polymerization under the action of the initiating Bu^tCl−AlBr₃ system at different ratios of the starting concentrations AlBr₃]₀/Bu^tCl]₀. An increase in this ratio results in both the acceleration of polymerization and an increase in the relative role of chain transfer reactions. Translated fromIzvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 11, pp. 2217–2222, November, 1998.