Kinetics and modeling of charge transfer polymerization of methyl methacrylate

The charge transfer polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) in presence of n-butyl amine (nBA) and carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) with dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) as solvent was experimentally investigated. The variables include concentrations of MMA, nBA, CCl4, DMSO and reaction temperature. The effect of these variables on monomer conversion, number and weight average molecular weights is discussed. A reaction mechanism is proposed and overall kinetics, propagation, chain transfer and termination constants are evaluated. A mathematical model is proposed for estimating monomer conversion, number and weight average molecular weights. The proposed model is validated using the kinetic constants and compared satisfactorily with experimental data of the present study. © 2009 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.