A novel simple but effective initiating system of H2O/AlCl3/veratrole （VE） has been developed to synthesize high molecular weight polyisobutylene （PIB） at elevated temperatures via cationic polymerization of isobutylene （IB） in solvent mixture of hexane/methylene dichloride （n-Hex/CH2Cl2 = 2/1, V/V）. VE played very important roles in decreasing cationicity of the growing chain ends, suppressing side reactions of chain transfer and termination during polymerization, leading to production of high molecular weight PIBs. PIBs with high yields, having very high weight-average molecular weight （Mw） of 1117000 and 370000 g/tool could be synthesized with H2O/AICl3/VE initiating system at VE concentration of 5.4 mmol/L at -80 and -60 ℃ respectively. Molecular weight of PIB increased remarkably with increasing VE concentration. The reaction order with respect to VE concentration was determined to be -3.52 via FTIR spectroscopy in combination with a diamond tipped attenuated total reflectance （ATR） immersion probe. The negative reaction order of VE was consistent with its retarding effect on IB polymerization by interacting with the propagating species. Molecular weight of PIB decreased with increasing polymerization temperature. The activation energy for polymerization degree （Eop） could be determined to be around -23 kJ/mol when VE concentration was 5.4 mmol/L or 6.4 mmol/L.
The cationic polymerizations of isobutylene （IB） coinitiated by AlCl3 were carried out in solvent mixture of nhexane/methylene dichloride （n-hex/CH2Cl2） of 60/40 V/V in the presence of ethyl benzoate （EB） at various temperatures range from -80℃ to -30℃. The effects of EB concentration （[EB]） and polymerization temperature on monomer conversion, weight-average molecular weight （Mw） and molecular weight distribution （MWD, Mw/Mn） of polyisobutylene （PIB） products were investigated. The rate of polymerization decreased while Mw of PIB products increased with increasing [EB]. The polymers with high molecular weight could be prepared in the presence of a suitable amount of EB. Significantly, the polymers with high Mw of 80.2 × 10^4 and 65.4 × 10^4 could be produced at -80℃ and -70℃ at [EB] = 0.24 × 10^3 mol/L respectively, which were much higher than that （Mw = 57.9 × 10^4） of PIB prepared at -100℃ in the absence ofEB. A simple but effective method for preparing the high molecular weight polyisobutylenes was developed in this work. It has been also found that the activation energy for propagation （Ep） depended on the polymerization temperature range in the presence of EB. An obvious inflection of the linear plots of lnXn versus 1/Tp occurred at the temperature range from -60℃ to -50℃ at four different concentrations of EB from 0.19 × 10^3 mol/L to 0.33× 10^3 tool/L, and thus the inflection temperature （Tinf） was in the range of -60℃ to -50℃. When [EB] was in the range of 0.24 × 10^3 mol/L to 0.33× 10^3 mol/L, Ep was determined to be around -12 kJ/mol when the polymerization was carried out at temperatures from -80℃ to Tinf and to be around -28 kJ/mol at temperatures from Tinf to -15℃ respectively.
The selective cationic polymerization of isobutylene （IB） initiated by a BF3-cyclohexanol （CL） complex was carried out from the mixed Ca fraction feed containing the 4C saturated and unsaturated hydrocarbons at -20℃. The effects of CL concentration, BF3 concentration, solvent for preparing BF3·CL complex and polymerization time on the chemical structure of end groups, number-average molecular weight （Mn） and molecular weight distribution （MWD, Mw/Mn） of the resulting polymers were investigated. The experimental results indicate that the BF3·CL complex initiating system exhibited an extremely high selectivity toward the cationic polymerization of IB in the mixed C4 fraction feed and low molecular weight （Mn = 900-3600） polyisobutylenes （PIBs） with large proportion of exo-double bond end groups were obtained. The exo-double bond content in PIB chain ends increased by increasing CL concentration or by decreasing solvent polarity in initiating system, BF3 concentration and polymerization time. The M, and MWD of the resulting PIBs were dependent on the concentrations of CL and BF3. Highly reactive PIBs with around 90 mol% of exo-double bonds were successfully synthesized by the selective polymerization of IB from the mixed Ca fraction feed, providing a potentially practical process for its simplicity and low costs.
The copolymerization of 4-vinylbenzyl chloride （VBC） and vinyl acetate （VAC） was carried out in toluene at 75℃ via radical polymerization using 2,2＇-azo-bis-（isobutyronitrile） （AIBN） as an initiator. The random copolymers of poly（4-vinylbenzyl chloride-co-vinyl acetate） （P（VBC-co-VAC）） with number average molecular weight （Mn） from 2000 to 6900, relatively narrow molecular weight distribution （MWD, Mw/Mn ca. 2.0） and with different copolymer composition of 4-vinylbenzyl chloride （VBC） from 17 mol% to 62 mol% could be obtained. The P（VBC-co-VAC） copolymers with an average number of 7 to 13 initiating sites of benzyl chloride per macromolecule could be used for the cationic polymerization of isobutylene （IB）. The cationic polymerizations of IB were further conducted by using P（VBC-co-VAC） copolymers as macroinitiators in conjunction with TICl4 at -40℃ in CH2Cl2. The effects of VBC/TiCl4 （molar ratio） on monomer conversion, Mn and MWD of the resultant copolymers were investigated under 3 sets of conditions. It is found that P（VBC-co-VAC）-g-PIB copolymers with relatively narrow MWD （Mw/Mn ca. 2.0） and with terminal tert-chlorine functional groups in branched PIB chains could be successfully synthesized when VBC/TiCl4 （molar ratio） was set in the range from 0.10 to 1.12. The unimodal GPC curve of the P（VBC-co-VAC）-g-PIB copolymers by RI detector was almost in harmony with the GPC curve by UV detector. The TEM image of the P（VBC-co-VAC）-g-PIB copolymer stained by RuO indicated that the copolymer formed a two-phase morphology with P（VBC-co-VAC）-rich domains of 20-100 um in size tethered by PIB branch segments.
