A study on acrylamide polymerization by anodic contact glow‐discharge electrolysis: A novel tool

Abstract Contact glow‐discharge electrolysis (CGDE) is an unconventional electrolytic phenomenon in which a plasma is sustained by a direct current (dc) glow‐discharge between an electrode and the liquid electrolyte around it. A remarkable feature of CGDE is highly nonfaradaic chemical effects at the glow‐discharge electrode. During anodic CGDE of an aqueous electrolyte, non‐Faradaic yields originate mainly from reactions triggered by H • and OH • radicals generated in high local concentrations near the anodic plasma/liquid electrolyte interface during the process. The radical‐generating potentiality of anodic CGDE was explored for the polymerization of acrylamide in aqueous media. The percentage of monomer conversion, rate of polymerization, charge efficiency, and viscometric average molar mass of the polymers produced were measured as functions of the quantities of electricity passed. The charge efficiency of the polymerization of acrylamide by anodic CGDE was at least 1 order of magnitude higher than that of ordinary electrochemically initiated polymerization. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci A: Polym Chem 39: 1584–1588, 2001