Effect of ionic strength on the reactivity ratios of acrylamide/acrylic acid (sodium acrylate) copolymerization

• Published in: Journal of applied polymer science Vol. 131; no. 20; pp. np - n/a
• Main Authors: Riahinezhad, Marzieh, Kazemi, Niousha, McManus, Neil, Penlidis, Alexander
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken, NJ Blackwell Publishing Ltd 15.10.2014; Wiley; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: Acrylamide; Acrylates; Acrylic acid; Applied sciences; Copolymerization; copolymers; Exact sciences and technology; Materials science; Monomers; Organic polymers; Physicochemistry of polymers; Polyelectrolytes; Polymers; Preparation, kinetics, thermodynamics, mechanism and catalysts; radical polymerization; Sodium; Strength; Polyelectrolyte; copolymers; Ionic strength; Acrylamide copolymer; Solution copolymerization; Sodium acrylate copolymer; Kinetics; Radical copolymerization; Experimental study; Reactivity ratio; polyelectrolytes; radical polymerization
• ISSN: 0021-8995; 1097-4628
• DOI: 10.1002/app.40949

ABSTRACT The ionic strength (IS) of polyelectrolyte solutions plays an important role in influencing reaction kinetics. The largely unstudied effect of IS on monomer reactivity ratios and copolymerization rates of acrylamide (AAm) and acrylic acid (AAc), in the form of sodium acrylate (NaAc), is investigated. Salt addition affects the nature of overall charges of the polyelectrolyte solution and diminishes the electrostatic repulsions between reacting chains. Therefore, changing the IS of the solution by incorporating salts affect not only the point estimates of the monomer reactivity ratios but also the overall behavior of the copolymerization (with a transition to azeotropic behavior). Experimental results on copolymerization rates confirm the observed trends in reactivity ratio behavior. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014, 131, 40949.