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Abstract
The kinetics of polymerization of vinyl acetate (VA) in presence of fullerene (C60) have been studied using triphenylbismuthonium 1,2,3,4-tetraphenylcyclopentadiene ylide as initiator in dioxane at 80 ± 0.1°C under the blanket of nitrogen. The rate of polymerization (R p) may be represented as R p ∝ [ylide]0.37[VA]1.2[Fullerene]–0.5, indicating non-ideal kinetics for the polymerization. The energy of acti- vation for the polymerization was found to be 46.2 kJ/mol. The synthesized polymer has been characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), proton (1H-NMR) and Carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance (13C-NMR) spectroscopic analysis. The molecular weight of the polymer, as determined by gel- permeation chromatographic (GPC) analysis, reduced as the C60 concentration in the polymer increases. C60 competed with vinyl acetate for free radicals, produced by ylide, and acts as a radical inhibitor. A part of fullerene was also inserted into the final polymer.