ABSTRACT
Radical vinyl polymerization is a chain reaction that consists of a sequence of three steps: initiation, propagation, and termination.
The chain initiation step involves two reactions. In the first step, a radical is produced by any one of a number of reactions. The most common is the homolytic decomposition of an initiator species I to yield a pair of initiator or primary radicals R. :
I kd → 2R. (2.1)
where kd is the rate constant for the catalyst dissociation. The second step involves the addition of this radical R. to the first monomer
molecule (M) to produce the chain-initiating species M . :1
R M M ki. .+ → 1 (2.2)
where ki is the rate constant for the second initiation step.
