Ionic polymerization

Article summary

In polymer chemistry, ionic polymerization is a chain-growth polymerization in which active centers are ions or ion pairs. It can be considered as an alternative to radical polymerization, and may refer to anionic polymerization or cationic polymerization. As with radical polymerization, reactions are initiated by a reactive compound. For cationic polymerization, titanium-, boron-, aluminum-, and tin-halide complexes with water, alcohols, or oxonium salts are useful as initiators, as well as strong acids and salts such as . Meanwhile, group 1 metals such as lithium, sodium, and potassium, and their organic compounds (e.g. sodium naphthalene) serve as effective anionic initiators. In both anionic and cationic polymerization, each charged chain end (negative and positive, respectively) is matched by a counterion of opposite charge that originates from the initiator. Because of the charge stability necessary in ionic polymerization, monomers which may be polymerized by this method are few compared to those available for free radical polymerization. Stable polymerizing cations are only possible using monomers with electron-releasing groups, and stable anions with monomers with electron-withdrawing groups as substituents.…

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