Kinetic study of radical polymerization. III. Solution polymerization of acrylamide by 1H‐NMR

Abstract Solution and radical polymerization of acrylamide in the presence of potassium persulfate in D 2 O was investigated up to high conversion by high‐field 1 H‐NMR spectroscopy. The kinetics of reaction was studied according to the data obtained from the corresponding spectra at various times during the polymerization reaction progress. Processing of the data led us to derive the rate equation of this polymerization reaction and determine the reaction order of each component in the rate equation. The order, with respect to initiator, was consistent with the classical kinetic rate equation (0.45), whereas the order with respect to monomer was greater than unity (1.49). The effect of temperature on the polymerization rate was also investigated and the activation energy of 48.4 kJ mol −1 was obtained over the temperature range of 60–75°C. Also some mechanistic studies were discussed. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 93: 2007–2013, 2004