Kinetics of vinyl polymerization initiated by potassium permanganate/β‐hydroxybutyric acid redox system

The aqueous polymerization of acrylamide initiated by potassium permanganate/β‐hydroxybutyric acid has been studied volumetrically at 35 ± 0.01°C in an inert medium. The rate of polymerization shows nearly square root dependence on β‐hydroxybutyric acid at low concentration (3.12 – 12.5 · 10−3 mol dm−3). The order with respect to potassium permanganate has been found to be 0.6 indicating thereby a bimolecular mode of termination. The polymerization rate has been varied linearly at low monomer concentrations i.e. from 2.5 –7.0 · 10−2 mol dm−3. The dependence of number average degree of polymerization on the initial rate of polymerization and temperature has been determined. The over‐all activation energy has been found to be 51.66 kJ mol−1. A kinetic reaction scheme is proposed on the basis of experimental results.