The polymerization of 1-triethylsilylbutadiene-1,3 and its copolymerization with styrene

Abstract

In view of the valuable properties of organosilicon polymers (high heat) stability good dielectric properties, cold resistance, etc.) there are good reasons for studying possible ways of modifying industrial plastics such as polystyrene, polymethylmethacrylate, etc. through the introduction of silicon-containing substituents. One method of doing so is based on the introduction of silicon atoms into the composition of polystyrene by means of copolymerization with silicon-containing monomers.The reactivity of vinyl compounds of silicon in radical polymerization reactions was investigated in [2, 3], and it was found that because of the low copolymerizability of vinyl compounds of silicon their relative activities in copolymerization reactions with styrene were usually zero, or extremely low. The preparation of copolymers with high contents of silicon therefore calls for special methods of polymerization carried out under rigorous conditions [4, 5].It is also known that the transition from vinyl containing compounds to their diene analogues is accompanied by increased copolymerizability of the latter [6].In this paper we present the results of a study of the polymerization of 1-triethylsilylbutadiene-1,3 (1-TESB) and the copolymerization of 1-TESB with styrene.