The effect of solvent on chain transfer in free radical solution polymerization of acrylic acid

In this work, polyacrylic acid was produced via solution polymerizalion using various solvents. Molar concentration of initiator, speed of agitalion and reaclion time were laken conslants during the experiments in which toluene, carbon tetrachloride and 1,2 dichlorethane were used as solvents. All the experiments were done in nitrogen almosphere. Chain lransfer coefficients for the above mentioned solvents were delermined by using number average degree of polymerization assuming that there was no chain transfer to the monomer and initiator. Carbon tetrachloride was found to be the best solvent to produce low molecular weight polyacrylic acid.