Rheokinetics of free‐radical polymerization of acrylamide in an aqueous solution

A method of rheokinetic analysis is applied to free‐radical polymerization of acrylamide in a water solution initiated by an oxidizing reducing system. The special feature of this system is the second‐order kinetics of the initiation stage. Theoretical analysis predicts the main effects, such as the time dependence of viscosity and the degree of polymerization, concentration influence of a monomer and an initiator, and the temperature dependence of the viscosity profile at different experimental conditions. Experimental data confirmed the idea about the second‐order reaction of initiation. Observed dependencies were close to theoretical predictions. Rate constants of different individual stages of a reaction and “apparent” values of activation energy were found and compared with published values. The possibility of solving an inverse rheokinetic problem from viscometric data was confirmed.