Polymerization of Acrylamide in Water

Abstract

An experimental investigation of kinetics of the solution free radical
homopolymerization of acrylamide initiated with potassium per sulfate
(PS) was conducted at 70

C. The overall activation energy of
homopolymerization was determined to be ( 24.65 ) kJ mol-1
. The effects
of initiator and monomer concentration on the rate of homopolymerization
were studied over a wide range using the well-known conversion vs. time
approach in dilute solution. Under the condition of our work the overall
rate of polymerization was proportional to (initiator concentration)1/2
however, in contrast to the classical kinetic picture, it is not directly
proportional to the monomer concentration .
Key words: Acrylamide, radical polymerization, kinetic aspects