PHOTOINITIATED RADICAL POLYMERIZATION OF VINYL ETHER-MALEATE SYSTEMS

The photoinitiated radical polymerization of difunctional vinyl ether/ maleate mixtures has been studied by real-time i.r. spectroscopy, a te chnique which records directly conversion vs time profiles for reactio ns occurring within seconds. Various factors were found to affect the polymerization kinetics, such as the photoinitiator concentration, the light intensity, the presence of oxygen and the composition of the mo nomer mixture. Whatever the monomer feed ratio, the two monomers were shown to polymerize at exactly the same rate, which reaches its maximu m value for stoichiometric composition. The observed dependence of the polymerization rate on the monomer concentration argues in favour of a mechanism involving a donor-acceptor complex, with formation of an a lternate copolymer. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.