Polymerization of methylmethacrylate initiated by hydrogenation catalysts

RANEY metals (Ni, Fe, Co), URUSHIBARA metals (Ni, Co) and ULIMANN cu initiate the polymerization of methylmethacrylate. Diamines, diols or organic halides enhance their reactivity. In the presence of CCl4, the polymerization rate (Rp) is proportional to the square root of the amount of both metals and CCl4, and to the first power of the monomer concentration, but Rp becomes constant and independent of the concentration of CCl4 when there is a great excess of CCl4. We concluded that this polymerization follows the free radical mechanism and the participation of a zero‐valent metal atom in the initiation reaction including complex formation between metal and CCL4 is suggested.