Water effects on the zwitterionic polymerization of cyanoacrylates

This paper presents a number of qualitative and semi‐quantitative observations on the effect of small concentrations of water on the polymerizations of butyl cyanoacrylates by tertiary amines in THF. It reports also that, in the absence of other bases, large concentrations (approx. 1 mol/l) of water can cause the polymerization of ethyl cyanoacrylate, in THF, even in presence of normally inhibiting amounts (10−5 mol/l) of p‐toluenesulfonic acid. A formal kinetic scheme of a stationary‐state polymerization, initiated by hydroxyl anions, is presented and discussed.