Macromolecules
Article
free-radical, anionic and coordination polymerization to give a
rubbery material, even though no cross-conjugated double
bond is present in the monomer molecule. Because the
chemical reactivity of the conjugated carbon−carbon double
bond in the monomer and that of the nonconjugated double
bond in the resulting polymer are very different, it is easy to
obtain polydienes without cross-linking. However, if the
dendralene polymerization proceeds via a conjugate addition
mode, as shown in Scheme 1, then the newly formed
P3D and MP3D and discuss the microstructure of the resulting
polymers.
EXPERIMENTAL SECTION
■
Materials. 2-Chloro-1,3-butadiene (chloroprene) was kindly
donated by Denki Kagaku Kogyo Co. Ltd., Japan as a 50% toluene
solution. Prior to use, it was twice purified by fractional distillation
under reduced pressure. P3D and MP3D were prepared according to
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the reported procedure. Bromine, p-bromoanisole, [1,3-bis-
(
(
diphenylphosphino)propane]dichloronickel(II), and [1,2-bis-
diphenylphosphino)ethane]dichloronickel(II) were used as received.
Scheme 1. Transmission of the Carbon−Carbon Double
Bond to Form a New Conjugated Dienyl Structure by the
Conjugated Addition of [3]Dendralene
α-Bromostyrene was prepared from styrene by the addition of
bromine in CCl , followed by dehydrobromination using KOH/
4
methanol at 25 °C. 1,3-Butadien-2-yl magnesium chloride was
prepared according to a previously reported procedure using
chloroprene and ordinary magnesium turnings with continuous
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activation of the magnesium surface with 1,2-dibromoethane.
Anionic Polymerization. The synthesized monomers were
purified by distillation under high-vacuum conditions in the presence
of phenylmagnesium bromide. The purified monomers were diluted
with THF and then sealed in ampules with breakable seals. All anionic
polymerizations were carried out under high vacuum using the well-
1
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known break-seal method. First, the THF solution of initiator was
introduced into the reactor and cooled to −78 °C. After the addition
of the monomer solution to the reactor in one portion at this
temperature, the reactor was put in an aimed constant-temperature
bath and allowed to stand still for a designed time. Finally, degassed
ethanol was added to terminate the polymerization. In the case of
block copolymerization, a small portion of the polymerization mixture
was transferred to the separated part of the reactor prior to the
addition on the second monomer.
conjugated carbon−carbon double bond in the polymer chain
may have similar reactivity to the one in the monomer and
could therefore be susceptible to attack of the propagating
chain end during polymerization. As a result, it is important to
select the polymerization conditions carefully in order to
prevent such a side reaction. For this purpose, in this work, we
chose the method of anionic polymerization, to be carried out
at low temperature.
Materials Characterization. The 1H and 13C NMR spectra were
recorded in CDCl using a JEOL JNM-AL-400 spectrometer. The
3
1
13
solvent peak was used as the reference. One dimensional H and
C
spectra were obtained with 32 768 data points, 15 and 220 ppm
spectral widths, 45 and 30° pulse widths, and 7 and 5 s repetition
times, respectively. A 2D H−H COSY spectrum was obtained with
1024 row data points and 256 column data points with zero filling.
GC−MS data were obtained using a Shimadzu QP-2010plus with
electron impact (EI) ionization. A size-exclusion chromatogram (SEC)
was obtained at 40 °C using a TOSOH HLC-8220 instrument
equipped with three polystyrene gel columns [TOSOH TSKgel
G4000HHR, G3000HHR, and G2000HHR (7.8 mm × 30 cm)] and UV
(254 nm) and refractive index (RI) detectors. THF was used as the
carrier solvent at a flow rate of 1 mL/min. The absolute molecular
weights of the polymers were determined using a Viscotek model 270
instrument connected to an SEC.
In a previous paper, we reported on the anionic polymer-
ization behavior of various functionalized 1,3-butadiene
1
1−14
derivatives.
Because the anionic polymerization of
conjugated 1,3-dienes proceeds smoothly in polar solvents at
low temperature, this mechanism was speculated to be useful
for the polymerization of dendralenes. Another strategy for
controlling the polymerization of dendrarene is to introduce a
substituent at a certain position. Although it is known that the
nucleophilicity of active chain-end species derived from 2-
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phenyl-1,3-butadiene and 2,3-diphenyl-1,3-butadiene was
too weak to initiate the polymerization of styrene, anionic
polymerization of these monomers proceeds in a living manner
to give polymers of predictable molecular weights and narrow
molecular weight distributions. This indicates that the aromatic
substituent on the C2 carbon of the 1,3-butadienyl skeleton can
change the nucleophilicity of active chain-end species through
conjugation. Because one of the conjugation systems in 2-
phenyl[3]dendralene (P3D) can be regarded as 2-phenyl-3-
vinyl-substituted 1,3-butadiene and the other one can be
regarded as 2-(1-phenylethenyl)-1,3-butadiene, active chain-
end species derived from P3D should have lower nucleophlicity
compared to that of ordinary 1,3-dienes, making it possible to
distinguish the conjugated double bond in the monomer from
the one in the polymer chain. Therefore, 2-aromatic-
substituted[3]dendralene would be suitable for studying the
anionic addition polymerization behavior of dendralenes.
Among 2-substituted[3]dendralene, we chose P3D and 2-(4-
methoxyphenyl)[3]dendralene (MP3D) as the first monomer
to polymerize by anionic initiator because the synthesis
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
■
Anionic Polymerization of P3D. The anionic polymer-
ization of P3D was carried out in THF using potassium
naphthalenide as an initiator. Upon addition of P3D, the
characteristic green color of the initiator turned immediately to
deep red. This color remained unchanged until the end of the
polymerization and disappeared instantaneously on the
addition of ethanol. No gel was formed during the polymer-
ization, and the polymer was precipitated by pouring the
solution into a large excess of ethanol. It was purified by
reprecipitation from THF to ethanol an additional two times
and finally freeze-dried from benzene. Table 1 summarizes the
results of the anionic polymerization of P3D under various
conditions. When the reaction was performed at −78 °C, the
polymerization was not complete in 1 h, whereas in the time
frame of 1−10 h, no residual monomer was detected by GC. In
all cases, polymers of predictable molecular weights based on
the monomer to initiator ratios were obtained with narrow
molecular weight distributions, indicating that the olefinic
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methodology of these monomers is well established. In this
article, we report the first example of anionic polymerization of
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dx.doi.org/10.1021/ma400987h | Macromolecules 2013, 46, 7282−7289