Effect of pyridine on the kinetics of polymerization of methyl methacrylate initiated by benzoyl peroxide and azobisisobutyronitrile at 60°C

Solution polymerization of MMA, with pyridine as the solvent and BZ₂O₂ and AIBN as thermal initiators, was studied kinetically at 60°C. The monomer exponent varied from 0.45 to 0.91 as BZ₂O₂] was increased from 1 × 10^?2 to 30 × 10^?2 mole/liter in a concentration range of 8.3-4.6 mole/liter for MMA. For AIBN-initiated polymerization the monomer exponent remained constant at 0.69 as AIBN] varied from 0.4 × 10^?2 to 1.0 × 10^?2 mole/liter in the same concentration range for MMA. The k²_p/k_t Value increased in both cases with an increase in pyridine concentration in the system. This was explained in terms of an increase in the k_p value, which was due presumably to the increased reactivity of the chain radicals by donor-acceptor interaction between the molecules of solvent pyridine and propagating PMMA radicals and in terms of lowering the k_t value for the diffusion-controlled termination reaction due to an increase in the medium viscosity and pyridine content.