Acetylene glow discharge polymers

Atomic polymerization is not polymerization in the conventional sense, because the molecular structure of the monomers is not retained in the polymer. For instance, the glow discharge polymers of acetylene and benzene are very much alike. Their copolymerization characteristics are nearly identical. When N2 and H2O are added to benzene or acetylene, considering that one molecule of benzene is equivalent to three molecules of acetylene in glow discharge polymerization, nearly identical polymers are formed.(19)... 

The distribution of polymer deposition observed in the plasma polymerization of acetylene at different flow rates (and different system pressures under plasma conditions) is shown in Figure 20.2. It should be noted that acetylene is the fastest polymerizing hydrocarbon and the system pressure decreases on the inception of glow discharge. In this particular configuration of reactor, the monomer does not pass the radio frequency coil, and presents a typical case in which the creation of chemically reactive species occurs at the boundary where the monomer meets the luminous gas phase, i.e., activation by luminous gas, not by ionization. 

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