Effect of initiators on grafting in the initial stage of the emulsion polymerization of methyl methacrylate using poly(vinyl alcohol) as a protective colloid |
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Authors: | T Okaya A Suzuki K Kikuchi |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Materials Science School of Engineering The University of Shiga Prefecture 2500 Hassaka, Hikone 522-8533 Japan e-mail: okaya@mat.usp.ac.jp Tel.: +81-749-288368 Fax: +81-749-288590, JP |
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Abstract: | To make clear the reason of unsuitability of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) protective colloid for the emulsion polymerization
of conjugated monomers, a model experiment of emulsion polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) was carried out with ammonium
persulfate (APS) or azobis(isobutyronitrile) (AIBN) initiators, where a small amount of MMA (1/100th of the concentration
compared with ordinary emulsion polymerization) was employed. This corresponds to the initial stage of the emulsion polymerization.
Grafting of MMA onto PVA took place remarkably irrespective of the kind of the initiators. Formation of homo-poly(MMA) was
observed to a small extent. The formation of new emulsion particles smaller than 100 nm continued to increase to almost the
end of the polymerization. PVA molecules in the grafted polymer are supposed to act as stabilizers of newly formed particles.
From kinetic treatment using the experimental data, the important issues were derived as follows. Firstly, the sulfate anion
radical from APS is much more reactive than the isobutyronitrile radical from AIBN in terms of hydrogen abstraction from PVA.
Secondly, high grafting ability of the latter initiator system, notwithstanding the much lower reactivity in the hydrogen
abstraction compared with the APS system, is attributed to the relative reactivity of the primary radicals, i.e., hydrogen
abstraction reaction from PVA to initiation reaction with MMA. The much slower rate of addition of the isobutyronitrile radical
to the monomer compared with that of hydrogen abstraction from PVA facilitates the grafting, although the rate constant of
hydrogen abstraction is far smaller than that with the sulfate anion radical by 10−4 times.
Received: 26 April 2001 Accepted: 6 September 2001 |
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Keywords: | Emulsion polymerization Initial stage Grafting Methyl methacrylate Poly(vinyl alcohol) |
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