A study has been carried out on the effect of solvent polarity on the base‐catalyzed polymerization of octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane. The solvents used were decalin, p‐chlorotoluene, o‐dichlorobenzene, and nitrobenzene. In accordance with the ionic mechanism proposed by Grubb and Osthoff, it has been found that the polymerization rate increases with solvent polarity, presumably bp increasing the concentration of silanolate ions. In addition, a better correlation has been obtained between molecular weights and initiator concentration, and the effect of monomer concentration on equilibrium conversion has also been elucidated.
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Morton et al. (1964) studied this question.
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