Anionic polymerization of o- and p-methoxystyrene

The butyllithium-initiated polymerization of o- and p-methoxystyrene was studied in toluene at 20°C by dilatometry. Initiation of o-methoxystyrene was found to be instantaneous as evidenced by the absence of any induction period. The propagation rate proceeds by an internal first order with respect to the monomer concentration while the order with respect to the living chain ends varies from 0.67 to 0.51 over a concentration range from 4.5 × 10^?4 to 1.8 × 10^?2 mole/1. The rate may thus be expressed by the equation, where M] and PLi] denote concentration of monomer and poly-o-methoxystyryllithium, respectively, and n varies from 0.67 to 0.51. It is assumed that the propagation proceeds exclusively via the monomeric form of the ion-pairs in analogy with the polymerization of styrene. The variable order results from the relatively high value of the dissociation equilibrium constant of dimeric into the monomeric ion-pairs K that was evaluated graphically to be 10^?3 instead of 10^?6 for styrene. The propagation rate constant k_p was found to be equal to about 50 l./mole-min; the propagation activation energy is equal to 12 kcal/mole. No appreciable termination was found in the polymerization of o-methoxystyrene. On the contrary, no quantitative data could be obtained for the polymerization of p-methyoxystyrene due to a slow initiation and a relatively fast termination reaction with formation of a precipitate of highly branched or crosslinked polymer. It is assumed that this precipitate results from a secondary ring metallation reaction.