Va. Dais et al., CYCLOALKANE PERKETAL INITIATORS FOR STYRENE POLYMERIZATION .3. DECOMPOSITION CHEMISTRY OF SPIROPERKETALS, Macromolecules, 26(9), 1993, pp. 2259-2263
Initiators that form diradicals are of interest due to their potential
for increasing polymerization rate. Spiroperketals made from 2,5-dihy
droperoxy-2,5-dimethylhexane and cyclic ketones theoretically can form
two diradical fragments during decomposition. However, thermolyses in
ethylbenzene and styrene showed that they mainly undergo in-cage deco
mposition, resulting in poor performance as both hydrogen atom abstrac
tors and polymerization initiators.