Photoinitiation. IV. The effect of lewis acid on the vinyl monomer polymerization photoinitiated by aromatic hydrocarbons

Polymerization of acrylonitrile photoinitiated by naphthalene, anthracene, phenanthrene, and pyrene is accelerated by an admixture of zinc (II) chloride, acetate, or nitrate. The effect of zinc (II) salts on the rate of pyrene-photoinitiated polymerization of acrylonitrile leads to an increase in this rate in the order Zn/OCOCH_3/2 < ZnCl₂ < Zn/NO_3/2. The maximum polymerization rate is achieved at the molar ratio ZnCl₂]/(ZnCl₂] + pyrene]) approximately 0.7. In contrast to the photoinitiated polymerization of acrylonitrile, the methyl methacrylate admixture of zinc (II) chloride exerts a smaller effect on the polymerization rate. In the pyrene-photoinitiated polymerization of styrene an admixture of zinc (II) chloride retards the polymerization rate. Fluorescence of aromatic hydrocarbon in the system acrylonitrile–aromatic hydrocarbon is efficiently quenched by zinc (II) chloride. Stern–Volmer constants determined for pyrene (80 dm³ mole^?1), phenanthrene (66 dm³ mole^?1), and naphthalene (49 dm³ mole^?1) are higher by about 2–3 orders of the Stern–Volmer constants for fluorescence quenching of aromatic hydrocarbons by acrylonitrile in the absence of ZnCl₂. The fluorescence of anthracene in acrylonitrile is not quenched by ZnCl₂. The acceleration effect of Zn (II) salts on the polymerization of acrylonitrile photoinitiated by aromatic hydrocarbons depends on two factors: an increase in the ratio of the rate constant of the growth and termination reactions, k_p/k_t, and an increase in the quenching constant of fluorescence of aromatic hydrocarbon, k_q, by the complex {acrylonitrile…ZnCl₂}. ZnCl₂ thus influences both the growth and initiation reactions of the polymerization process.