Abstract

Diphenylzine-water-organic mono chlor idle systems, Ph 2Zn-H 2O-RCl, with n-, sec- and tert-butyl chloride (t-BuCl) and benzyl chloride (BzCl), were used to induce styrene polymerization. Improvement in polymer conversion is in concordance with the enthalpy of dissociation of the organic chloride employed. Polymerization results suggest that systems with t-BuCl and BzCl proceed by coordinate cationic propagation. Obtained polystyrene was atactic with up to 75% syndiotactic triads detected by 1H-NMR spectroscopy.