Kinetics and Modeling of Vinyl Acetate Graft Polymerization from Poly(ethylene glycol)

Abstract A kinetic model for the graft polymerization of VAc from PEG was developed using the method of moments. Experiments were carried out to verify the model. The effect of various parameters, such as initiator concentration, temperature, and PEG molecular weight on the polymerization kinetics was examined. Polymerization rate, grafting efficiency, graft copolymer molecular weight, and PEG grafted ratio were measured. The model was in good agreement with the experimental data. No gel effect was observed at the studied PEG/VAc weight ratio of 1:1. The chain transfer constant to PEG was correlated to be $C_{{\rm PEG}} = 0.139\;\exp ( - 11\,200/RT)$ . The model was also applied in a semi‐batch reaction and compared with the experimental results. magnified image