ISSN:
0449-2978
Keywords:
Physics
;
Polymer and Materials Science
Source:
Wiley InterScience Backfile Collection 1832-2000
Topics:
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Physics
Notes:
The structural and steric isomerism of propylene polymers has been estimated on the basis of solution properties as well as infrared and high-resolution nuclear magnetic resonance spectra. Three general types of polypropylenes were prepared: polymers prepared with the cationic catalytic system AlCl3-C2H5Cl, stereoblock polymers obtained by successive extraction from a commercial product and isotactic polymers of low molecular weight obtained by thermal degradation of a highly isotactic polymer followed by hydrogenation with Adam's catalyst in dioxane at 40°C. The characterization of all samples was accomplished by equilibrium ultracentrifugation, vapor-pressure osmometry, viscometry, and gel-permeation chromatography. It is found that the molecular chain of cationically prepared polymer is somewhat branched owing to structural isomerism during polymerization. Isoamyl acetate is found to be a theta solvent for stereo-block as well as for atactic and syndiotactic polymers; the theta temperature is determined as the temperature at which the light-scattering second virial coefficient A2 vanishes. A close correlation is found between the theta temperature and stereoisomerism. The absorbances of the 1154 and 974 cm-1 bands in the infrared spectra decrease with decreasing molecular weight; in addition to the mere existence of alternating CH2 and CH(CH3) groups in the polymer chain, rather long sequences of this type are required for the appearance of these bands. Changes in the absorption band at 997 cm-1 show that chains consisting of over ten isotactically connected monomer units can assume a helical conformation. From the high-resolution NMR spectra of different polypropylenes, including isotactic polymers of low molecular weight, it is found that in estimating the microstructure, account must be taken of the effects of stereoisomerism within tetrads of monomer units on the apparent widths of the methylene proton resonances. If substantial concentrations of several of the possible types of tetrads are present (i.e., if the tactic sequence lengths are quite short), then it is difficult to determine the relative amounts of tactic dyads accurately from the 100 Mcps methylene proton resonances.
Additional Material:
14 Ill.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pol.1969.160070601
