It has been unexpectedly found that meta-diisopropenyl benzene can be polymerized into poly-m-diisopropenyl benzene with a relatively narrow molecular weight distribution and with only a small degree of crosslinking (gel formation) if done in the presence of at least one alpha-olefin containing from 2 to 12 carbon atoms in tetrahydrofuran (solvent) at low temperatures employing an alkyl lithium initiator. The poly-m-diisopropenyl benzene produced by employing this technique has an isopropenyl moiety on almost every diisopropenyl benzene repeat unit in the polymer. This polymer is particularly useful since its pendant isopropenyl groups can be further reacted with other compounds leading to polymers with various functionalities.
This technique can also be employed in the synthesis of copolymers containing repeat units derived from meta-diisopropenyl benzene and one or more other monomers. The copolymers synthesized using the process of this invention contain an essentially quantitative number of unreacted isopropenyl groups on the meta-diisopropenyl benzene repeat units in the polymer chain.
人们意外地发现,如果在
四氢呋喃(溶剂)中至少有一种含有 2 至 12 个碳原子的 α-烯烃存在,并在低温下使用烷基
锂引发剂,则可将间二异
丙烯苯聚合成分子量 分布相对较窄的聚间二异
丙烯苯,而且只有很小程度的交联(凝胶形成)。利用这种技术生产出的聚间
二异丙苯几乎在聚合物中的每个
二异丙苯重复单元上都有一个异
丙烯基。这种聚合物特别有用,因为其悬挂的异
丙烯基团可以进一步与其他化合物反应,从而生成具有各种官能团的聚合物。
这种技术还可用于合成含有由偏二异
丙烯基苯和一种或多种其他单体衍生的重复单元的共聚物。采用本发明工艺合成的共聚物,在聚合物链中的间
二异丙苯重复单元上,基本上含有一定数量的未反应异
丙烯基团。