Yasumasa Watanabe, Hideyo Ishigaki, H. Okada
Apr 1, 1991
Citations
0
Influential Citations
10
Citations
Journal
Bulletin of the Chemical Society of Japan
Abstract
The radical polymerization mechanism of styrene initiated by 2,2-bis(t-butyldioxy)alkanes (1) has been studied in benzene. The decomposition products of 1 are acetone, alkyl methyl ketone, t-butyl alcohol, and t-butyl peracetate. Styrene monomer converts to polystyrene along with styrene oxide. The peroxides 1 cleave homolytically at one of dioxy bonds to yield intermediate alkoxyl radicals with α-t-butyldioxyl group, which undergo β-scission to afford t-butyldioxyl or alkyl radicals. The resulting t-butyldioxyl radical reacts with styrene to form 2-(t-butyldioxy)-l-phenylethyl radical, which decomposes subsequently to styrene oxide and t-butoxyl radical via γ-scission. Alternatively, a part of t-butyldioxyl radical adds to styrene to afford polystyrene containing dioxy bond.