Issue 34, 2022

Polar additive triggered chain walking copolymerization of ethylene and fundamental polar monomers

Abstract

Copolymerization of ethylene with polar monomers to produce functionalized polyethylenes is important but is a great challenge by using the seminal cationic α-diimine palladium(II) catalyst. A wide range of polar monomers generally shut down the reaction because of the underlying β-X elimination events and formation of stable chelates. In this contribution, a polar additive strategy was developed to overcome these issues. A large excess of a nitrile compound that acted as a polar additive triggered copolymerizations of ethylene with fundamental polar vinyl and allyl monomers, including methyl acrylate, vinyl acetate, butyl vinyl ether, allyl acetate, tert-butyl 3-butenoate, butyl allyl ether, allyl chloride, acrylic anhydride, allyl acrylate, and allyl methacrylate, mediated by one α-diimine palladium(II) catalyst. This avoided a tedious hunting on a one-to-one catalyst. Catalytic activities, copolymer molecular weights, branching densities and microstructures, and co-monomer incorporations could be modulated by varying the amount of the polar additive. Possible mechanistic insights were proposed on the basis of these copolymerization results.

Graphical abstract: Polar additive triggered chain walking copolymerization of ethylene and fundamental polar monomers

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
18 Jul 2022
Accepted
10 Agu 2022
First published
10 Agu 2022

Polym. Chem., 2022,13, 4966-4972

Polar additive triggered chain walking copolymerization of ethylene and fundamental polar monomers

Y. Zhang and Z. Jian, Polym. Chem., 2022, 13, 4966 DOI: 10.1039/D2PY00934J

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements