Radical polymerization of methyl methacrylate and styrene in the presence of ferrocene

The influence of ferrocene on the kinetic parameters of methyl methacrylate (MMA) or sryrene polymerization is investigated. It is shown, that in the presence of ferrocene the growth of the initial rate of polymerization is a ccompanied with significant decrease of the polymirization degree of polyme r obtained when peroxides are used as the polymerization initiators. The po lymerization kinetics parameters are evaluated. its demonstrated that the p rocess of polymerization in the presence of a ferrocene has a low activatio n energy, that allows to carry out the polymerization at lower room tempera tures. The influence of the ferrocene on the molecular-mass characteristics of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) was studied and it was found that the influence of ferrocene on PMMA molecular mass is determined by the nature o f the initiator used. The decomposition temperature of PMMA increases with the increase of Ferrocene concentration. Monte-Carlo technique was used for numerical simulation of MMA radical polymerization kinetics in the presenc e and in the absence of ferrocene and to follow the change of molecular-wei ght distribution during the polymerization. The peculiarities of polymer ra dical concentration changes at the initial stage of polymerization are show n. Satisfactory correspondence between calculated and experimental data was obtained. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.