Polymerization of acrylamide initiated by V(V)-cyclohexanone redox system in micellar phase: A kinetic study

The kinetics of acrylamide (AM) polymerization initiated by V(V)-cyclohexan one(CH) redox system in the presence of anionic surfactant, sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS), in aqueous sulphuric acid have been studied over a temperat ure range of 30-50 degrees C. The rate of Polymerization, RP(abs), as well as the rate of V(V) consumption, -R-v, were found to increase in the presen ce of SDS, above its CMC, while decrease with cationic surfactant, cetyl tr imethylammonium bromide (CTAB). The non-ionic surfactant, TX-100, has no ef fects on the rates. Both the rates were also determined at varying concentr ation of AM, V(V), CH, H+ and at various ionic strength in the presence of 0.015M SDS in the solution. The overall activation energy for the proccesse s calculated from the Arrhenious plot, were found to be 19.34 and 26.58 kca l/mol in the presence and absence of 0.015M SDS. The viscosity average mole cular weight of the polymer obtained in presence of SDS increases with the concentration of SDS. A suitable free radical mechanistic scheme for the po lymerization process is proposed.