Studies on the initiation mechanism of persulfate/aliphatic secondary amine system in vinyl polymerization

Persulfate/aliphatic secondary amine initiation systems were studied. Secondary amines were discovered to be excellent accelerators for the polymerization of acrylic monomers in aqueous solution initiated by persulfate. The rate of acrylamide polymerization and the overall activation energies were determined respectively. The active intermediates of the secondary amine species formed during the initiation reaction were detected by ESR technique to be dialkylamino radicals(R₂N·). From the results the initiation mechanism was proposed.