Effect of shear rate on solution polymerization of acrylonitrile

Abstract

Application of shear is found to increase the rate of solution polymerization of acrylonitrile in N,N-dimethyl formamide (DMF) initiated by benzoyl peroxide by as much as 400 percent of the value in absence of shear. The solvent DMF acts as an inert and maintains a homogeneous reaction mass during the entire course of polymerization. To study the effect of shear systematically, a special dilatometer has been constructed such that a constant shear rate, could be applied to the reaction mass. The rule of solution polymerization has been measured under the variation of and monomer concentration in the system. The measurements of induction time on the addition of a strong inhibitor, hydroquinone, reveal that the increase in the rate of polymerization with shear rate can be largely attributed to the change in the initiator efficiency. As a further confirmation of the above hypothesis, the decomposition of benzoyl peroxide in nitrobenzene at 80° C was measured and was found to increase significantly on application of shear. This confirms the importance of mass-transfer resistance in removal of CO₂, and the increase in the rate of polymerization of acrylonitrile occurs because the decomposition of benzoyloxy radicals is favored in the forward direction. Since the polymerization of acrylonitrile is preferentially initiated by phenyl radicals, the rate of polymerization is found to increase.