Participation of lewis base on vinyl chloride polymerization with Al(C2H5)3CCl4 catalyst system

The polymerization of vinyl chloride has been investigated using an $\text{Al}\text{(}\text{C}{}_2\text{H}{}_5\text{)}{}_3\text{CCl}{}_4$ catalyst system in the presence of various Lewis bases. Effective Lewis bases are γ-butyrolactone, diglyme and diethylenetriamine which are multidentate. The rate of polymerization is dependent not only on the basicity of the Lewis base used but also on a coordination number of one. The latter is the predominant factor. For the effect of polymeric amines, a tentative hypothesis is discussed.