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Literature Review
Now remember, these electrons still want to be paired, so any electrons they
can find to pair up with, they will do so. The carbon-carbon double bond in a vinyl
monomer, like vinyl acetate, for example, has a pair of electrons that is very easily
attacked by the free radical. The unpaired electron, when it comes near those
electrons, can't help but swipe one of them to pair itself with. This new pair of
electrons forms a new chemical bond between the initiator fragment and one of the
double bond carbons of the monomer molecule. This leaves another electron now
without a partner, the remaining electron from the pair that had made up the carbon-
carbon double bond. This electron then, having nowhere else to go, associates itself
with the carbon atom, which is not bonded to the initiator fragment. You can see that
this will lead us back where we started, as we now have a new free radical when this
unpaired electron comes to roost on that carbon atom.
. .
C6H5 CO O + CH2 CH C6H5 CO OH + CH3 CH
O C CH3 O C CH3
O O
Propagation
. .
CH3 CH + CH2 CH CH3 CH CH2 CH
O O O
. .
CH2 CH CH2 CH + CH2 CH CH2 CH CH2 CH CH2 CH
O O O
Wouldn't you know it, this new radical reacts with another vinyl acetate
molecule in the exact same way as the initiator fragment did. Of course, as we can
see, this gets us nowhere as far as pairing electrons goes, because we still have yet
another radical when this reaction takes place, and it just goes and reacts with
another vinyl acetate molecule. But because we keep making a new radical, we can
keep adding more and more vinyl acetate molecules, and in doing so build a long
chain of them. Self-perpetuating reactions like this one are called chain reactions. So
as long as the chain keeps growing, who really cares if a few electrons remain
unpaired?
Sadly, the electrons care. Radicals are unstable, and eventually they are going
to find away to become paired without generating a new radical, and then our little
chain reaction will come grinding to a halt. This happens in several ways. The
simplest way is for two growing chain ends to find each other. The two unpaired
electrons then join to form a pair, and a new chemical bond joining their respective
chains. This is called coupling.
Another way in which our unpaired electrons can bring a stop to our
polymerization is called disproportionation.
Termination
. .
CH CH2 CH + HC CH3
CH2
But radicals, being unstable react also with solvents, the monomer and even
with the polymer in order to couple themselves. This way they give transfer reactions
with benzene and toluene, with styrene (which acts as an inhibitor for vinyl acetate
polymerization), with the polymer leading to longer chains and with the monomer
leading to branched polymers.
Transfer reactions with toluene, styrene, with the polymer and the monomer
.
CH2
CH3
.
CH2 CH CH2 CH + CH2 CH2 +
CH2 CH
. .
CH2 CH CH2 CH + CH2 CH CH2 CH CH2 CH
O O
.
CH2 CH + CH2 CH
O C CH3 O C CH3
O O
25% 75%
.
(CH2 CH )n-1CH2 CH
.
CH2 C + nCH2 CH CH2 C OCOCH3 OCOCH3
O O
O O OCOCH3 OCOCH3
CH2 CH OH CH3 CH
The tautomerization takes place through the migration of one hydrogen atom
and shifting of the double bond. The increased stability of acetaldehyde in
comparison with poly(vinyl alcohol) is explained by the difference in the formation
heat, which in the case of acetaldehyde is with 15 Kcal higher. The poly(vinyl alcohol)
is therefore obtained from poly(vinyl acetate) through hydrolysis. The hydrolysis can
take place either in acidic or in basic catalyst.
CH2 CH
+O H
CH2 CH CH2 CH
-
O: + H+ +O H + CH3OH CH3 C O
C O H O+
CH3 CH3 C O
CH3
CH2 CH + CH3COOCH3 + H+
OH
CH2 CH CH2 CH
CH2 CH
- O O-
O: + CH3O
CH3 C O- +
CH3 C O
O CH3 CH3COOCH3
-
CH2 CH + CH3OH CH2 CH + CH3O
O- OH
If there are traces of water in the reaction medium, the last phase is no longer
reversible and acetate ions are obtained. These acetate ions lead to the catalyst
consumption and forming of sodium acetate.
CH3 CH3
CH3
- - -
-
HO + C O
HO C O HO C O + CH3O CH3OH + CH3COO
OCH3
OCH3
- -
CH3COO + NaOH CH3COONa + HO
1.3 Process Technology
The poly(vinyl acetate) hydrolysis can take place either in acidic catalyst (with
H2SO4, HCl) at approximately 800C, either in basic catalyst (with NaOH, CH3ONa) at
almost 350C.
Acidic hydrolysis has a series of disadvantages that stopped it to be
industrially applied, as follows:
The second procedure has the advantage that during the reaction the gel
phase is no longer present. Therefore we need no more special technological
measures, but the hydrolysis degree is no longer controllable. During the reaction the
small quantities of PVAc introduced in the catalyst solution are rapidly and totally
hydrolyzed (98-99%). Thus, this method is applied when we need a maximum
hydrolysis degree.
Technologically the poly(vinyl alcohol) can be obtained either by batch or
continuous procedure.
When we do this we clip off all those acetate groups to end up with another
polymer, poly(vinyl alcohol). But for paint we don't really want to clip all of the acetate
groups. We can control this reaction so that when we're done we still have about
20% of the acetate groups left on the polymer. What we have then is a copolymer of
poly(vinyl alcohol) and poly(vinyl acetate) called poly(vinyl alcohol-co-vinyl acetate),
appropriately enough. It's a random copolymer, that looks like poly(vinyl alcohol),
except with vinyl acetate repeat unit every now and then, like this:
But why do we want to do this? It has to do with how acrylic paints work.
Acrylic paints in them a compound called methyl methacrylate. Now this is some
reactive stuff, and after the paint is brushed on it polymerizes to form poly(methyl
methacrylate). Its structure is similar to PVA, but it's different. Look closely. Can you
see the differences?
Poly(methyl methacrylate) is a hard, tough, and shiny plastic, and if when it
forms in the wet paint, it makes the paint surface, hard, tough and shiny. This is
good. We want paint to do this. But there's a problem. Methyl methacrylate is
hydrophobic. It doesn't dissolve in water, and a lot of paints are water based.
Now ask yourself this question. If you were a molecule of methyl methacrylate,
and as a methyl methacrylate molecule you hated water, where would you go?
Would you go out into the water, or would you go into the inside of that coiled
polymer, away from the water? You'd go to the inside of the coil of course! And that's
just what the real methyl methacrylate does. The methyl methacrylate hides in the
hydrophobic center of the coiled polymer. By doing this, it can stay suspended in
water based paints! A suspension of an insoluble substance, like methyl
methacrylate, held in suspension by being wrapped in another kind of molecule, like
our copolymer, is what we call a latex. That's where we get the name latex paint.