Chromium thiophene carboxylate initiated photopolymerization of methylmethacrylate

Abstract

The solution polymerization of methylmethacrylate (MMA) carried out in the presence of visible light (440 nm) using chromium thiophene carboxylate (Cr-TC) as a new photoinitiator at 30±0.1 °C follows non-ideal kinetics. Degradative chain transfer and primary radical termination reasonably accounts for the kinetic non-ideality. Electron spin resonance studies indicate that overall polymerization takes place by a radical mechanism. The overall activation energy and average value of k 2 p/ k t are 19.2 kJ mol −1 and 0.38 × 10 −3 l mol t-1 s −1, respectively.