Kinetics and Modeling of the Radical Polymerization of Trimethylaminoethyl methacrylate chloride in Aqueous Solution

Abstract

For the radical polymerization of ionized trimethylaminoethyl methacrylate chloride (TMAEMA) in aqueous solution, two strategies to determine the propagation rate coefficient (kp) are proposed for systems where the pulsed‐laser polymerization–size‐exclusion chromatography (PLP–SEC) method fails. This problem occurs with some fully ionized or sterically highly hindered monomers, where termination may become too slow. As TMAEMA is a borderline case with kp being accessible by PLP–SEC and from single‐pulse–pulsed‐laser polymerization with electron paramagnetic resonance (SP–PLP–EPR) spectroscopy, studies into this monomer allow for judging the quality of the suggested alternative approaches of kp measurement and serve for consistency checks of the previously published kp and termination rate coefficient (kt) data. Within both approaches, kp/〈kt〉0.5 is measured via chemically initiated polymerization, with 〈kt〉 referring to chain‐length‐averaged termination. The kp/〈kt〉0.5 data are combined either with kp/〈kt〉 values from highly time‐resolved near‐infrared detection of monomer conversion induced by a single laser pulse (SP–PLP–NIR) or with Predici modeling on the basis of known chain‐length‐dependent termination kinetics. As coupled rate coefficients are measured, the obtained kp data also provide 〈kt〉 for a particular chain‐length distribution. The differences between propagation and termination rates of nonionized and fully ionized monomers are discussed. image