Studies in polymerisation of vinyl acetate. I.

Polymerisation of vinyl acetate has been studied in bulk and solution at 60°C using benzoyl peroxide as initiator. From the results obtained, it has been shown that, the rate of polymerisation is proportional to the square root of initiator concentration in both the cases. The values of the transfer constants due to the monomer and initiator, (CM), (CI), the overall rate constant (K), the quotient of the rate constant of propagation and the square root of the rate constant of termination (KP/Kt1/2) and the rate constant for the initiation (Ki) have been determined for bulk polymerisation. Utilising some of the constants obtained in bulk polymerisation and studying the polymerisation of vinyl acetate in glacial acetic acid in detail, values of CI, K, (Kp/Kt1/2), Ki at different ratios of solvent (S) and monomer (M) concentration ([S]/[M]) as also chain transfer constant (Cs) for glacial acetic acid have been calculated.