Aqueous polymerization of ethyl acrylate initiated by ceric ion-reducing agent system in sulphuric acid medium

Kinetic study of aqueous polymerization of ethyl acrylate (EA) is carried out at 30 °C in dilute sulphuric acid medium by employing ammonium ceric sulphate–methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) as redox initiator system. The ceric ion consumption is found to be first order with respect to ceric ion and half order with respect to reducing agent concentrations. No complex formation between ceric ion and reducing agent is observed. The orders with respect to ceric ion, reducing agent and monomer concentrations are evaluated for the aqueous polymerization of EA by Ce(IV)–MEK redox initiator system, and are found to be 0.5, 0.5 and 1.4, respectively . The overall activation energy, E _overall, for aqueous polymerization of EA in the temperature region of 27–40°C is found to be 20.27 kJ/mol. A kinetic scheme for the aqueous polymerization of EA initiated by Ce(IV)–MEK redox initiator system is presented.This revised version was published online in June 2005 with corrections to figure legends as well as small corrections within text.