Kinetic Studies on Bulk Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization of Styrene

Abstract

Abstract:The long chain vinyl end-functional polystyrene has been synthesized in bulk polymerization method using atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) with Undecenyl-2-Bromopropionate (UnBP) and CuCl/bypyridine catalytic system. The polymerizations demonstrate an increase in molecular weight and conversion in direct proportion to the polymerization time by consumed monomer which exhibited first-order kinetics. This study concludes the simple kinetics of polystyrene synthesized by ATRP using initiator and ligand-to-copper(I) halide was found to be 1:2:1, which tentatively indicates that the coordination sphere of the active copper(I) center contains two bipyridine ligands. The propagation rate has been investigated for long range of time for ensuring that the rate of radical combination or disproportionation is sufficiently less.