Kinetics of photoinitiated free‐radical polymerization

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Abstract
Analytical expressions describing the kinetics of photoinitiated free‐radical polymerization are derived for a variety of conditions. The effect of the exponential attenuation of intensity of light in the direction of incidence in the system is carefully accounted for in each case. An attempt is made to include the depletion of initiator due to its photolysis in the kinetic scheme. The marked difference between the polymerization kinetics in well‐stirred and unstirred systems is shown by comparing them under limiting conditions. The variation of this difference with the optical density of the system is illustrated graphically. The influence of light absorption by components other than the photoinitiator (e.g., solvent, monomer) is examined. The order of the polymerization reaction with respect to initiator as determined by conventional kinetic experiments depends on the amount of light absorbed by components of the system other than the photoinitiator.

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