Raita Goseki, Suguru Onuki, S. Tanaka
May 12, 2015
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0
Influential Citations
11
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Journal
Macromolecules
Abstract
The anionic polymerization of diisopropenylbenzene (DIPB) derivatives was conducted in THF at −78 °C with a specially designed initiator system prepared from oligo(α-methylstyryl)lithium and an excess potassium tert-butoxide (KOBut) (2.7–5.0 equiv to the Li salt). Among the ortho-, meta-, and para-isomers of DIPB derivatives, it was found that the para-isomer (p-DIPB) successfully underwent the living polymerization in a selective manner through one of the two isopropenyl groups under the above stated conditions. With this living polymerization system, soluble polymers with controllable Mn values ranging from 7620 to 31 500 g/mol and near monodisperse distributions (Mw/Mn ≤ 1.03) were obtained for the first time. The obtained living polymers were stable at −78 °C even after 168 h and at −40 °C after 6 h, in which the intermolecular addition reaction of the chain-end anion to the pendant isopropenyl group could be completely suppressed. In contrast, the living polymerization of either the ortho- or meta-is...