Studies on phase transfer catalysed polymerisation of acrylonitrile

The kinetics and mechanism of free radical polymerisation of acrylonitrile (AN), using potassium peroxydisulphate as initiator in the presence of prop iophenonebenzyldimethylammonium chloride as phase transfer catalyst were st udied. The reactions were carried out under inert and unstirred conditions at constant temperature of 60 degrees C in cyclohexanone/water biphase medi a. The dependence of the rate of polymerisation on various experimental con ditions such as different concentrations of monomer, initiator, phase trans fer catalyst (PTC) and different ionic strength, temperature and volume fra ction of aqueous phase is studied. The order with respect to monomer, initi ator and the phase transfer catalyst is found to be 2, 0.5 and 0.5 respecti vely. The rate of polymerisation (R-p) is independent of ionic strength and pH. However, an increase in the polarity of solvent and volume fraction of aqueous phase has slightly increased the R-p value. Based on the results o btained, a mechanism has been proposed for the polymerisation reaction.