ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the ionic chain-reaction and complex coordination polymerization (addition polymerization). Chain growth polymerization is also called addition polymerization and is based on free radical, cationic, anionic, and coordination reactions where a single initiating species causes the growth of a polymer chain. The kinetic chain reaction typically consists of three steps—initiation, propagation, and termination. The initiators for free radical, anionic, and cationic polymerizations are organic radicals, carboanions (anionic polymerizations), and carboniums (cationic polymerizations). Chain growth is exothermic with the polymerization mainly controlled by the steric and resonance factors associated with the monomer. Anionic polymerization was used to produce synthetic elastomers from butadiene at the beginning of the twentieth century. The art of cationic polymerization, like that of many other types of polymerization, is at least a century old. In this chapter titanium has been used to illustrate the coordination polymerization process.
