Kinetics of photopolymerization of acrylamide in AOT reverse micelles

Abstract

Abstract The kinetics of the photoinitiated polymerization of acrylamide in toluene/AOT/water inverse microemulsions have been examined for systems initiated by AIBN or a dye: triethanolamine redox reaction. The rates of polymerization were determined by dilatometry, the data being corrected for the effect of reaction exotermicity. For both the oil‐soluble and the water‐soluble initiating systems, the rate of polymerization was found to be proportional to the first power of the incident light intensity. For AIBN‐initiated systems, the rate of polymerization was also found to be proportional to the first power of the initiator concentration. The molecular weights of the polymers produced were independent of the rates of polymerization and initiation. These results suggest that exclusively monoradical termination, involving a degradative chain transfer, is occurring in these systems