Preparation of functional polymers by living anionic polymerization: Polymerization of allyl methacrylate

✍ Scribed by Hongmin Zhang; Eli Ruckenstein

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 150 KB
• Volume: 35
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0887-624X
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-0518(199710)35:14<2901::aid-pola10>3.0.co;2-n

✦ Synopsis

The anionic polymerization of allyl methacrylate was carried out in tetrahydrofuran, both in the presence and in the absence of LiCl, with a variety of initiators, at various temperatures. It was found that (1,1-diphenylhexyl)lithium and the living oligomers of methyl methacrylate and tert-butyl methacrylate are suitable initiators for the anionic polymerization of this monomer. The temperature should be below 030ЊC, even in the presence of LiCl, for the living polymerization to occur. When the polymerization proceeded at 060ЊC, in the presence of LiCl, with (1,1-diphenylhexyl)lithium as initiator, the number-average molecular weight of the polymer was directly proportional to the monomer conversion and monodisperse poly(allyl methacrylate)s with high molecular weights were obtained. 1 H-NMR and FT-IR indicated that the a C|C double bond of the monomer was selectively polymerized and that the allyl group remained unreacted. The prepared poly(allyl methacrylate) is a functional polymer since it contains a reactive C|C double bond on each repeating unit.