Kinetics of cationic photopolymerizations of divinyl ethers characterized using in situ Raman spectroscopy

In situ Raman spectroscopy experiments were used to determine effective kinetic propagation constants for a series of unsteady-state divinyl ether polymerizations at different isothermal temperatures and light intensities. Raman spectroscopy was found to be ideally suited for monitoring cationic photopolymerizations because the technique allows isothermal experiments to be performed with excellent time resolution and allows several spectral features to be observed simultaneously. In addition, the Raman experiments provided direct information about the vinyl bond concentration in situ as the reaction takes place. For these cationic photopolymerizations, the reaction rate and limiting conversion were both found to increase as the reaction temperature was increased. At all temperatures, the profile for the propagation rate constant, k_p, exhibited a dramatic increase at the start of the reaction, plateaued at a value between 10 and 40 l/mol s (depending upon temperature), and then decreased as the reaction reached a limiting conversion due to trapping of the active centers. Finally, the overall activation energy for polymerization was found to be 25.1 ± 6.1 kJ/mol. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.