Radical polymerization of methyl methacrylate and styrene in the presence of ferrocene

The influence of ferrocene on the kinetic parameters of methyl methacrylate (MMA) or styrene polymerization is investigated. It is shown, that in the presence of ferrocene the growth of the initial rate of polymerization is accompanied with significant decrease of the polymerization degree of polymer obtained when peroxides are used as the polymerization initiators. The polymerization kinetics parameters are evaluated. Its demonstrated that the process of polymerization in the presence of a ferrocene has a low activation energy, that allows to carry out the polymerization at lower room temperatures. The influence of the ferrocene on the molecular-mass characteristics of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) was studied and it was found that the influence of ferrocene on PMMA molecular mass is determined by the nature of the initiator used. The decomposition temperature of PMMA increases with the increase of ferrocene concentration. Monte-Carlo technique was used for numerical simulation of MMA radical polymerization kinetics in the presence and in the absence of ferrocene and to follow the change of molecular-weight distribution during the polymerization. The peculiarities of polymer radical concentration changes at the initial stage of polymerization are shown. Satisfactory correspondence between calculated and experimental data was obtained.