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Regio and Stereoisomerization in Polymers

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    Symmetrical monomers such as ethylene and tetrafluoroethylene can join together in only one way. Monosubstituted monomers, on the other hand, may join together in two organized ways, described in the following diagram, or in a third random manner. Most monomers of this kind, including propylene, vinyl chloride, styrene, acrylonitrile and acrylic esters, prefer to join in a head-to-tail fashion, with some randomness occurring from time to time. The reasons for this regioselectivity will be discussed in the synthetic methods section.

    index.png

    If the polymer chain is drawn in a zig-zag fashion, as shown above, each of the substituent groups (Z) will necessarily be located above or below the plane defined by the carbon chain. Consequently we can identify three configurational isomers of such polymers. If all the substituents lie on one side of the chain the configuration is called isotactic. If the substituents alternate from one side to another in a regular manner the configuration is termed syndiotactic. Finally, a random arrangement of substituent groups is referred to as atactic. Examples of these configurations are shown here.

    index2.png

    Many common and useful polymers, such as polystyrene, polyacrylonitrile and poly(vinyl chloride) are atactic as normally prepared. Customized catalysts that effect stereoregular polymerization of polypropylene and some other monomers have been developed, and the improved properties associated with the increased crystallinity of these products has made this an important field of investigation. The following values of Tg have been reported.

    Polymer

    Tg atactic

    Tg isotactic

    Tg syndiotactic

    PP

    –20 ºC

    0 ºC

    –8 ºC

    PMMA

    100 ºC

    130 ºC

    120 ºC

    The properties of a given polymer will vary considerably with its tacticity. Thus, atactic polypropylene is useless as a solid construction material, and is employed mainly as a component of adhesives or as a soft matrix for composite materials. In contrast, isotactic polypropylene is a high-melting solid (ca. 170 ºC) which can be molded or machined into structural components.

    Contributors

    William Reusch, Professor Emeritus (Michigan State U.), Virtual Textbook of Organic Chemistry


    Regio and Stereoisomerization in Polymers is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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