A kinetic study of the activated anionic polymerization of ε‐caprolactam

The diversities existing among published kinetic studies on activated anionic polymerization of ε‐caprolactam are closely examined. A kinetic model derived from a regular, linear reversible reaction mechanism is employed to explain the experimentally observed autocatalytic character of the polymerization system and to examine the dependence of the apparent activation energy on the experimental method. Several existing kinetic models tested with our experimental data show that the autocatalytic type rate equation best describes the polymerization process.