V. Beraud et al., Triethylborane and methyl vinyl ketone as a bicomponent transfer agent forthe polymerisation of styrene, MACRO RAPID, 21(13), 2000, pp. 901-904
The polymerisation of styrene in the presence of methyl vinyl ketone (MVK)
and triethylborane (BEt3) was studied. The mixture of these two compounds w
as found to form a bicomponent complex that functions as a transfer agent f
or growing polystyryl radicals (C-T = 0.7; benzene 60 degrees C). The analy
sis of the polymer chains formed by MALDI-TOF-MS showed that they were fitt
ed with CH2-CH3 and CH2-CH2-C(O)-CH3 as end groups which obviously emanated
from MVK and BEt3. In contrast, no such transfer occurred on using each of
them as single compound.