Molecular Weight in Polymerization of Methyl Methacrylate Initiated with Cyclohexanone

Molecular weight investigations of the poly(MMA) obtained in the polymerization initiated with cyclohexanone were carried out. The chain-transfer constants to the monomer, solvent, and initiator, using a new formal approach for chain-transfer constants calculations based on the Mayo relation, have been evaluated: C M = 1.1 × 10−3, C 1 = 2.2 × 10−4, C s = 1.8 × 10−4. The comparatively high C M value is interpreted in terms of the increased susceptibility of the MMA molecules toward the chain-transfer reaction due to the interactions between the monomer and initiator molecules. The infleuence of the temperature on the DP n of poly(MMA) is correlated with activation energy of initiation E i of MMA polymerization initiated with cyclohexanone.