Polymerization Mechanism of Vinyl Chloride with Trialkylaluminum-Lewis Base Catalyst and Thermal Stability of Poly(vinyl Chloride)

Abstract The mechanism of vinyl chloride polymerization by the tri-ethylaluminum-Lewis base-carbon tetrachloride catalyst system and the thermal stability of the resulting polymer were investigated. When the Lewis base is multidentate, the resultant complex with triethylaluminum shows significantly high catalytic activity for radical polymerization of vinyl chloride in the presence of carbon tetrachloride to give a white powder with high molecular weight. Carbon tetrachloride accelerates the rate of polymerization and participates in an initiating process rather than in a propagating step. The thermal stability of the polymer prepared with this catalyst system is much superior to that of commercial polyvinyl chloride), although the numbers of the double bonds in a chain end and of the head-to-head linkage are similar in both samples, suggesting that the thermally unstable structures of the former react with triethylaluminum to give the thermally stable structure on the polymerization process.