TY - JOUR
T1 - Ultrafast phosphazene-promoted controlled anionic polymerization of styrenic monomers
AU - Ntetsikas, Konstantinos
AU - Polymeropoulos, Georgios
AU - Zapsas, Georgios
AU - Bilalis, Panagiotis
AU - Gnanou, Yves
AU - Hadjichristidis, Nikos
N1 - KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01
Acknowledgements: Research reported in this publication was supported by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST).
PY - 2018/10/29
Y1 - 2018/10/29
N2 - The anionic polymerization of styrenic monomers with phosphazene bases as promoters, utilizing “seeding” technique in a nonpolar solvent and at room temperature was studied. In all experiments, the phosphazene base (t-BuP4, t-BuP2, and t-BuP1) was added in an equimolar amount to the organolithium initiator after the formation of oligomers (2 min) by conventional anionic polymerization. When t-BuP4 was used, the polymerization of styrene and 4-methylstyrene was extremely fast (100 % conversion within 5 min) and the final homopolymers exhibited narrow molecular weight distribution and controlled molecular characteristics. Likewise, when weaker bases were employed, the polymerization was also controlled but showing slower reaction rate. To examine the “livingness” of this system, block copolymers were synthesized by sequential monomer addition. Further studies were conducted in order to extend this novel method to the anionic polymerization of dienes.
AB - The anionic polymerization of styrenic monomers with phosphazene bases as promoters, utilizing “seeding” technique in a nonpolar solvent and at room temperature was studied. In all experiments, the phosphazene base (t-BuP4, t-BuP2, and t-BuP1) was added in an equimolar amount to the organolithium initiator after the formation of oligomers (2 min) by conventional anionic polymerization. When t-BuP4 was used, the polymerization of styrene and 4-methylstyrene was extremely fast (100 % conversion within 5 min) and the final homopolymers exhibited narrow molecular weight distribution and controlled molecular characteristics. Likewise, when weaker bases were employed, the polymerization was also controlled but showing slower reaction rate. To examine the “livingness” of this system, block copolymers were synthesized by sequential monomer addition. Further studies were conducted in order to extend this novel method to the anionic polymerization of dienes.
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10754/630590
UR - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/pola.29258
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85055686691&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/pola.29258
DO - 10.1002/pola.29258
M3 - Article
SN - 0887-624X
VL - 57
SP - 456
EP - 464
JO - Journal of Polymer Science Part A: Polymer Chemistry
JF - Journal of Polymer Science Part A: Polymer Chemistry
IS - 3
ER -