Living tert-butyllithium initiated anionic polymerization of 2-vinylnaphthalene in toluene-tetrahydrofuran mixtures

The tert-butyllithium (t-BuLi) initiated polymerization of carefully purifi ed 2-vinylnaphthalene in toluene containing small amounts of tetrahydrofura n with respect to t-BuLi proceeds on a timescale of several hours without s ignificant deactivation and allows the synthesis of very narrow molecular w eight distribution poly-(2-vinylnaphthalene) (P2VN) (polydispersities as lo w as 1.04) and molecular weights between 1000 and 20,000. The absence of P2 VN-Li deactivation at these conditions is also indicated by high degrees of trimethylsilyl end functionalization (> 95%) and coupling with dibromoxyle ne. The respective polymerizations of conventionally purified monomer revea l a complex polymerization profile consistent with deactivation by 2-acetyl naphthalene during the early stages of the reaction. (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.