Alain Soum

Anionic ring-opening copolymerization of cyclodisilazanes

The anionic copolymerization of various cyclodisilazanes has been investigated. Both block and random copolymers have been prepared and fully characterized. In the case of random copolymerization, the reactivity ratios of the comonomers have been calculated along with the absolute rate constants of homo- and copolymerization. Depending on the silicon substituent of the monomers, the random copolymers exhibit more or less blocky structure. The thermal and mechanical behavior of the various copolymers have also been evaluated.

Polymerization of Alkynes Initiated by Stable Metal Carbene Complexes

The polymerization of alkynes (1-heptyne in particular) initiated by a transition metal carbene complex has been studied in detail from a kinetic and structural point of view.

Kinetics and Thermodynamics of Anionic Polymerization of 2-Isopropenyl Pyridine in Toluene

The thermodynamics and kinetics of anionic vinyl polymerization has been the subject of several investigations over the last few decades. [1–9] Of these, the anionic polymerization of alpha-substituted vinyl monomers [3–9] was most readily studied because of their relatively low ceiling temperature. In these studies, both the polymerization rate constants and equilibrium constants have been determined but the rate of depolymerization has not been measured directly, due to a number of reasons such as the lack of stability of the propagating carbanions and the rapid rates of depolymerization under conditions of interest. We now wish to report the direct determination of both the rates of polymerization and depolymerization of 2-isopropenyl pyridine (2-IP) in toluene with Li+ as counter-ion, and the comparison of the thermodynamic results with the kinetic data.