Anionic Polymerization of 1,3-Cyclohexadiene with Alkyllithium/Amine Systems. Characteristics of n-Butyllithium/N,N,N',N'-Tetramethylethylenediamine System for Living Anionic Polymerization.

The n-butyllithium (n-BuLi)/N,N,N',N'-tetramethylethylenediamine (TMEDA) system (with the molar ratio of TMEDA to n-BuLi higher than 4/4) has been found to polymerize 1,3-cyclohexadiene to produce "living" polymer having a narrow molecular weight distribution with well-controlled polymer chain length. The rate of polymerization and polymer yield increased with increasing of the ratio of TMEDA to n-BuLi. The molecular weight distribution of obtained polymers became narrower with the ratio of TMEDA to n-BuLi. The formation of benzene generated by termination reaction was found to decrease with the ratio of TMEDA to n-BuLi. In contrast to 1,3-cyclohexadiene, low yield and broad molecular weight distribution were observed in the polymerization of 1,3-hexadiene and 2,4-hexadiene initiated by the n-BuLi/TMEDA (4/5) system. The microstructure of poly(1,3-cyclohexadiene) was determined by 2D-NMR. A high content of 1,2-units was found in the polymerization initiated by the alkyllithium/TMEDA system, while the high content of 1,4-units was observed in the cases of alkyllithium or alkyllithium/1,4-diazabicyclo[2,2,2]octane system. The 7Li NMR signals of the n-BuLi/TMEDA systems and poly(1,3-cyclohexadienyl)lithium /TMEDA were in higher magnetic field than the signals of n-BuLi and poly(1,3-cyclohexadienyl)lithium, respectively, indicating the disaggregation of the lithium species.