Degradation of Polydienes Induced by Alkyllithium: Characterization and Reaction Mechanism

The lithiation reaction is a key step in anionic graft polymerization of polydienes. However, we observed that polymer degradation occurs concurrently with the lithiation process. Herein, alkyllithium-induced degradation of polydienes was investigated, which showed that the alkyllithium/N,N,N′,N′-tetramethylethylenediamine system causes polydiene degradation at room temperature or higher. The number-average molecular weight of rubber decreased...