Determination of initiation rate of copolymerization of acrylonitrile with p-bromophenyl acrylate carried out in N,N-dimethylformamide

Studies of the initiation rate of the copolymerization reaction of acrylonitrile with p-bromophenyl acrylate initiated by azobisisobutyronitrile in dimethylformamide at 60°C are reported. The inhibition method involved use of stable Banfield's radical (N-1,1-dimethyl 3-(N-oxidophenylimine)butyl]-N-phenylaminyl oxide). In the case of acrylonitrile, a side reaction effect of the initiation with the stable radical was observed along with a retarding effect resulting from inhibition reaction products (2k_df) = 8.2 × 10^?4 min^?1. During the inhibited homopolymerization of p-bromophenyl acrylate a very strong side initiation reaction effect results from the Banfield radical; the inhibition reaction products do not influence the further course of the polymerization reaction. Side initiation effects of the Banfield radical (BR) increase with increasing concentration of p-bromophenyl acrylate. The overall contribution of the side initiation reaction changes for different comonomer mixtures; with their compositions the actual changes are nonadditive. The inhibition reaction products do not influence the further course of copolymerization. The initiation rate in monomer mixtures depends on their composition and may be described by the following relation: