Chemical Forums
Chemistry Forums for Students => Undergraduate General Chemistry Forum => Topic started by: xshadow on March 17, 2016, 11:07:04 AM
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HI!!!
I have a doubt:
My text book says that polyethylene can be created by this reaction:
n CH2=CH2 >>> "polyethylene "
But someone can tell me how two molecules of ethylene react (the reaction mechanism...the movment of pi bond electrons) to give( i thins) the ethylene's dimer ??
CH2=CH2 + CH2=CH2 = ??
The product is a dimer??
Thanks :)
And what is its structure?
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Your textbook oversimplifies. Ethylene does not react with itself without a catalyst or initiator. There is no simple "ethylene dimer."
Try this: https://www.google.co.uk/#q=ethene+polymerisation
And look up Ziegler-Natta polymerisation - the mechanism is quite complex!
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Your textbook oversimplifies. Ethylene does not react with itself without a catalyst or initiator. There is no simple "ethylene dimer."
Try this: https://www.google.co.uk/#q=ethene+polymerisation
And look up Ziegler-Natta polymerisation - the mechanism is quite complex!
I'll read that, thanks for the moment :)
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One ethylene dimer would be cyclobutane, but it's obtained through a different process, with UV light.
An other dimer is 1-butene, but you won't observe it in a polymerization process.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1-Butene
Refineries either make isobutene of it and then alkylates for high-octane fuels, or metathese it with ethylene to propylene, from which polypropylene is made.