Frontal radical polymerization of methyl methacrylate in a cylindrical flow reactor

The radical polymerization of methyl methacrylate in a cylindrical flow rea ctor under the action of dicyclohexylperoxydicarbonate, benzoyl peroxide, a nd tert-butyl peroxide was investigated. At a monomer consumption rate abov e 2.5 l/h, a stationary autowave polymerization process is established in t he reactor, with the front coordinate linearly depending on the consumption rate. Effects of the type and concentration of the initiators or their mix tures, the temperature, and the flow velocity on the structure of thermal a utowaves, the degree of monomer conversion, and the molecular-mass characte ristics of the synthesized polymer were studied. The process initiated by a mixture of initiators shows evidence of a splitting of the thermal wave in to two components corresponding to sequential polymerizations under the act ion of each individual component. The frontal polymerization in a cylindric al continuous flow reactor is characterized by low conversions and cannot e nsure sufficiently high molecular mass and polydispersity of the products.