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Modeling the Radical Batch Homopolymerization of Acrylamide in Aqueous Solution
Author(s) -
Preusser Calista,
Chovancová Anna,
Lacík Igor,
Hutchinson Robin A.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
macromolecular reaction engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.37
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 1862-8338
pISSN - 1862-832X
DOI - 10.1002/mren.201500076
Subject(s) - monomer , radical , acrylamide , aqueous solution , chemistry , molar mass , radical polymerization , kinetics , polymer , polymer chemistry , organic chemistry , physics , quantum mechanics
A kinetic model for the radical homopolymerization of acrylamide in aqueous solution is developed, incorporating propagation and termination rate coefficients as functions of monomer concentration and including the formation and reaction of midchain radicals based on the insights and measured rate coefficients from recent pulsed‐laser studies. The model successfully represents the batch conversion profiles measured using an in situ NMR technique between 40 and 70 °C with initial monomer concentrations of 5 to 40 wt%, as well as the associated polymer molar mass distributions. In particular, the model captures the decreased rate that occurs at lowered monomer concentrations as a result of the formation of less‐active midchain radicals by backbiting. Previous literature data are also well represented by the model.