Determination of propagation‐rate constant of vinylidene chloride by emulsion polymerization

The propagation‐rate constant of vinylidene chloride (VDC) was determined at 40 and 50 °C, respectively, by applying the so‐called Ugelstad plot to the polymerization‐rate data of the seeded and unseeded emulsion polymerizations of VDC. The values of the propagation‐rate constant kp thus determined are kp = 64 dm3/mol · s at 50 °C and kp = 52 dm3/mol · s at 40 °C, respectively. From these kp values, the activation energy for propagation reaction was determined to be Ep = 4.2 kcal/mol, which is close to that of vinyl chloride (3.7 kcal/mol). © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci A: Polym Chem 39: 1005–1015, 2001 The propagation‐rate constant kp for vinylidene chloride was determined as 52 dm2/mol · s at 40 °C and 64 dm3/mol · s at 50 °C, respectively, by applying the so‐called Ugelstad plot to the polymerization‐rate data of the seeded and unseeded emulsion polymerizations. The activation energy for the propagation reaction was determined from these kp values as Ep = 4.2 kcal/mol. The values of kp and Ep thus determined were compared with the literature values in an Arrhenius plot.