Kinetic studies on the polymerization of acrylonitrile initiated by p-nitrophenacyl dimethyl sulfonium ylide

Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur-208 016, India

E-mail : sskatiyar@yahoo.com        Fax : 91-512-570006

Manuscript received 3 November 2000

Homopolymerization of acrylonitrile, initiated by p-nitrophcnacyldimethyl sulfonium ylide has been studied at 40º under inert atmosphere using dilatometric technique. The radical polymerization of acrylonitrile follows non-ideal kinetics, since the monomer and initiator exponent values are found to be 1.1 and 0.39, respectively. The polymerization is retrarded by hydroquinone. The overall activation energy is calculated to be 44 kJ mol^-1. Kinetic data indicate that the polymerization involves free radical mechanism.