Retardation of V⁵⁺-Cyclohexanone Initiated Polymerization of Acrylonitrile by Phenol

Abstract

Studies have been made on the kinetics and mechanism of the retardation of v⁵⁺-cyclohexanone initiated polymerization of acrylonitrile by phenol in the temperature range 45–50°C. The effects of metal ion, monomer, phenol, HzSOI, some inorganic salts, and some organic solvents have also been studied. The unique observation in this investigation is the positive intercept obtained from the plot of [M]/R_p vs l/[M]. This type of observation is significantly different from previous studies on retarded polymerization. The values of composite rate constants k₀k_t/k_ikk_pK were calculated from plots of [M]/R_p vs [M]⁻¹. A suitable mechanism is put forth and the rate law based on the proposed mechanism is derived.