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SynopsisThe solution polymerization of butyl acrylate in the presence of a furnace black was found to produce a stable dispersion of carbon black which showed Newtonian flow, while the mixture prepared by mixing the same carbon black into a solution of poly-(butyl acrylate) homopolymer had a large degree of thixotropy. A marked change in the viscosity of the reaction mixture was also observed at an early stage of polymerization when the initial mixture which was a moist mass with no fluidity, turned to a fluid easily stirred. The change in viscosity and the transition in flow behavior were carefully followed with a rotary cylinder type viscometer. The non-Newtonian initial mixture was found to turn to a Newtonian fluid a t low conversion of the monomer. Beside the adsorption of the homopolymer onto the surface of carbon black particles, which would occur also in mechanical mixing, the change in the flow behavior was estimated to be caused by the change in the shape and the size of the dispersed carbon black particles due to the change in the condition of the surface of the particles by which growing polymer radicals, as well as initiator radicals, were captured.

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