| Abstract: | The kinetics of isothermal, photoinitiated, solution polymerization of 1-vinyl-2-methylimidazole (MVI) was studied using the standard dilatometric technique. The photoinitiators used were aromatic carbonyl compounds. Most of the experiments were carried out using methanol as solvent, but other solvents were also used. The reaction follows the classical kinetic scheme for free radical polymerization. The activation energy for the polymerization is 3.9 kcal/mol. The polymerization is greatly accelerated by the presence of water in reaction medium. Among the three photoinitiators tried, 2,2′-diethoxyacetophenone (DEAP) has the highest quantum efficiency for the polymerization of MVI. |
