Estimating diffusion-controlled reaction parameters in photoinitiated polymerization of dimethacrylate macromonomers

Abstract

The kinetics of photoinitiated polymerization of dimethacrylate macromonomers have been studied to determine the diffusion-controlled reaction parameters using attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR). A predicted kinetic rate expression with a diffusion control factor was employed to estimate an effective rate constant and to define the reaction-controlled and diffusion-controlled regimes in the photopolymerization. An effective rate constant,ke, can be obtained from the predicted kinetic rate expression. At the earlier stages of polymerization, the average values of kinetic rate constants do not vary during the reaction time. As the reaction conversion,α, reaches the critical conversion, αc, in the predicted kinetic expression, the reaction becomes to be controlled by diffusion due to the restricted mobility of dimethacrylate macromonomers. A drop in value of effective rate constant causes a drastic decrease of reaction rate at the later stages of polymerization. By determining the effective rate constants, the reaction-controlled and diffusion-controlled regimes were properly defined even in the photopolymerization reaction system.