Investigation of Termination During Ultrasonic Depolymerization

Ultrasound applications provide additional ways in polymerization and copolymerization synthesis. Ultrasonic depolymerization has wide applications in industry and is also used in copolymer synthesis. Another application of depolymerization is investigating the termination mechanism and finding the combination/disproportionation ratio for various monomer‐polymer systems. In this work ultrasonic depolymerization of polyvinyl pyrrolidone and polyacrylamide were investigated. Sonications were monitored continuously by the ACOMP (Automatic continuous monitoring of polymerization) system, which provides viscosity, light scattering, ultraviolet and refractive index measurements continuously. Depolymerizations were performed in the absence and presence of a radical scavenger and disproportionation/combination ratios were discussed for each system.