Polymerisation induction period

As the alkene monomers can absorb oxygen from the air, forming peroxides (c/. p. 329) whose ready decomposition can effect autoinitiation of polymerisation, it is usual to add a small quantity of inhibitor, e.g. quinone, to stabilise the monomer during storage. When subsequent polymerisation is carried out, sufficient radical initiator must therefore be added to saturate the inhibitor before any polymerisation can be initiated an induction period is thus often observed. 

The reaction between acrylonitrile and formaldehyde (as paraformaldehyde or tri-oxane), under strong acid catalysis (usually sulphuric) and most often in presence of catalytic quantities of acetic anyhydride, to produce triacrylohexahydrotriazine, is inclined to violent exotherm after an induction period. The runaway can be uncontrollable on sub-molar scale. It may be due to acrylate polymerisation or to increasing reactivity of the formaldehyde equivalent due to progressive de-oligomerisation. Procedures claimed to prevent the risk have been described in the literature but do not seem reliable. 

See Other ALDEHYDES, CATALYTIC IMPURITY INCIDENTS, INDUCTION PERIOD INCIDENTS, PEROXIDISABLE COMPOUNDS, POLYMERISATION INCIDENTS... 

Biesenberg, J. S. etal., J. Polym. Eng. Sci., 1976,16, 101-116 Polymerisation of methyl methacrylate initiated by oxygen or peroxides proceeds with a steady increase in velocity during a variable induction period, at the end of which a violent 90°C exotherm occurs. This was attributed to an increase in chain branching, and not to a decrease in heat transfer arising from the increasing viscosity [ 1 ]. The parameters were determined in a batch reactor for thermal runaway polymerisation of methyl methacrylate, initiated by azoisobutyronitrile, dibenzoyl peroxide or di-ferf-butyl peroxide [2],... 

Though regarded as one of the more stable peroxides, it becomes shock-sensitive on heating, and self-accelerating decomposition sets in at 49° C [1]. One of the recently calculated values of 46 and 42°C for induction periods of 7 and 60 days, respectively, for critical ignition temperatures is closely similar to that (4577 days) previously recorded. Autocatalytic combustion of the polymerisation initiator is exhibited. Although not ordinarily shock sensitive, it responds to a detonator [2],... 

Kruus also conducted experiments in the presence of the radical scavenger diphe-nylpicryhydracyl (DPPH) and observed induction periods which were roughly proportional to concentration of DPPH employed. This clearly demonstrates the free radical nature of the polymerisation. By assuming that each of the monomer radicals produced by the cavitation process (Eq. 5.30) reacted with one DPPH molecule, he was able to deduce the following kinetic relationship ... 

Van der Waals radii, 8 Vibrational modes, 342 Vinyl ethers, polymerisation, 189 Vinyl polymerisation, 320 branching in, 321 chain length in, 321 coordination, 322 induction period in, 321... 

Supported CrC>3 catalysts, referred to as Phillips catalysts, are important industrial catalysts and are employed in high-density polyethylene production. Phillips catalysts polymerise ethylene with an induction period, which has been ascribed to the slow reduction of Cr(VI) by the monomer and to the displacement of oxidation products (mainly formaldehyde) from the catalytic species [226]. The prereduction of the catalyst with the use of H2 or CO enables the induction period to be eliminated. Active sites thus formed involve surface low-valence Cr(II) and Cr(III) centres, which can appear as mononuclear (formed from chromate species) and binuclear (formed from dichromate species) [227-232],... 

The reduction brought about by treatment with carbon monoxide leads to the catalyst being capable of polymerising ethylene immediately without an induction period ethylene polymerisation in the presence of a catalyst prepared by reduction with ethylene is characterised by an induction period, which is connected with the reduction [28,37,43,224,240]. 

Exposing toluene solutions of 10 in the presence of AlMe3 to 6 bar ethene pressure at 60°C shows initially no gas consumption. However, after an induction period of 8 - 10 minutes some activity is seen which increases with time, indicative of the formation of a compound capable of catalysing polymerisation. Monitoring the reaction of solutions of 10 by NMR at room temperature over a period of days showed the appearance of a new complex, together with the formation of C6HFS. Clearly another C-H activation reaction... 

Detailed studies of systems involving aluminium-based Lewis acids and hydrogen halides are scarce. Fontana and Kidder investigated the polymerisation of propene initiated by the pair aluminium bromideTiydrt n bromide. The cocatalytic role of the latter acid was clearly proved since no polymerisation could be detected in its absence. The dependence of the rate of polymerisation upon the cocatalyst concentration and the induction periods observed make this system similar to those in which stannic chloride induces the polymerisation of olefins in the presence of variable quantities of water (see Sect. IV-C-3-b). With relatively large quantities of added hydrogen bromide, addition of this acid to the mcmomer to give fso-propyl bromide must have constituted an important side reaction. 

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