Molecular Organization and Methyl Methacrylate Polymerization

Although MMA autoacceleration polymerization studied in the last fifty years an adequate interpretation of this phenomenon has not been found. One of the lesser-known and accepted approaches to the interpretation of free radical polymerization is based on the supramolecular organization of the monomer. Recently published results indicate that liquid MMA is a partially organized system. These results were used as the basic starting point of our theoretical considerations of MMA polymerization, a subject of this work. The model of supramolecular structure of liquid MMA was adopted, and developed into a method for the prediction of ordered and disordered phases of MMA. Based on the model, the theoretical assumptions about the course of polymerization and the degree of conversion at the moment of the onset of autoacceleration and at the maximum rate of polymerization were developed. These theoretical assumptions were experimentally verified and confirmed by studying of MMA polymerization in the temperatu range from 333 to 363K with the use of 2,2'-azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) as the initiator.