The Polymerization of Alkyl Methacrylates and Styrene in the Presence of Surface Active Agents

The polymerization of some alkyl methacrylates and styrene in the presence of sodium tetrapropylenebenzenesulfonate (ABS) was investigated in an aqueous medium without any ordinary radical initiators. Although the effect of the concentration of ABS on the rate of the polymerization of styrene was different from that of alkyl methacrylates, the approximately linear relationship was found between the rate of the polymerization of styrene or methacrylates and the concentration of micelles of ABS as shown in Fig.2. We already reported that methylmethacrylate in the presence of sodium oleate does not polymerize in an aqueous medium. But higher alkyl methacrylates such as n-butyl methacrylate, as well as styrene, polymerized markedly in the presence of sodium oleate as shown in Table4.The relationship between the rate of the pvlymerization and the concentration of micelles in the presence of sodium oleate is the same as that in the case of ABS. Moreover, as shown in Table 6 and Fig.4, Michaelis-Menten's equation is applicable to the present case in order to elucidate the initiation mechanism.