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Syndiospecific Polymerization: History
Please note this is an old version of this entry, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Subjects: Polymer Science
Contributor: Helena Kang

Syndiospecific polymerization is a stereospecific chain-growth process in which successive monomer insertions generate predominantly syndiotactic dyads and triads, that is, an alternating relative configuration of adjacent stereocenters along the polymer backbone. The defining stereochemical outcome is a high racemo (r) dyad content and corresponding rrr triad enrichment, as opposed to the meso (m) enrichment that characterizes isospecific polymerization. In coordination mechanisms, facial selection at the metal active site and chain-end control cooperate to dictate the sense of each insertion so that opposite absolute configurations alternate [1]. Homogeneous titanium-based catalysts activated by methylaluminoxane exemplify systems that polymerize styrene by repeated insertion to give crystalline syndiotactic polystyrene [1]. Quantitative NMR triad analysis and first-order Markov statistics are used to demonstrate that the steric control is syndiotactic-specific rather than atactic or isotactic [2]. The concept is thereby bounded as stereoregulating polymerization that produces syndiotactic sequences, distinct from nonstereospecific radical or ionic polymerizations that yield atactic chains.

  • syndiospecific polymerization
  • syndiotactic polymer
  • stereospecific insertion
  • tacticity

Synthesis and properties of polymers • Polymers and Plastics • Materials Science • Physical Sciences

References

  1. N. Ishihara; M. Kuramoto; M. Uoi; Stereospecific polymerization of styrene giving the syndiotactic polymer. Macromol. 1988, 21, 3356-3360, 10.1021/ma00190a003.
  2. Pasquale Longo; Antonio Proto; Adolfo Zambelli; Syndiotactic specific polymerization of styrene: driving energy of the steric control and reaction mechanism. Macromol. Chem. Phys. 1995, 196, 3015-3029, 10.1002/macp.1995.021960924.
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