Effect of poly(2-vinylpyridine) as a template for the radical polymerization of methacrylic acid—V: Influence of temperature

Abstract

The influence of temperature on the polymerization of methacrylic acid along atactic and isotactic poly(2-vinylpyridine) templates was studied by means of isothermal and scanning (d.s.c.) calorimetric techniques. The overall energy of activation of both template polymerization systems was about 40 kJ/mol as compared to 80 kJ/mol for the blank. This large difference is caused by a high energy of activation of the cross-termination reaction (50 kJ/mol). The apparent energy of activation, obtained from scanning measurements, strongly depended on the scan speed because the steady-state assumption was not valid in the lower temperature region, i.e. the template radical concentration decreases with increasing scan speed causing a rise in the apparent energy of activation.