Study on the aqueous two-phase copolymerization of cationic polyacrylamide

Abstract Aqueous two-phase copolymerization of acrylamide (AM) and dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate methyl chloride (DMMC) was carried out in polyethylene glycol 20000 (PEG 20000) aqueous solution and with 2,2'-azobis(2- amidinopropane) dihydrochloride (V-50) as the initiator. The effects of the temperature, the PEG 20000 concentration, the DMMC/AM molar ratio and the V- 50 concentration on the initial monomer copolymerization rate (Rp), the total monomers conversion and the molecular weight of copolymers were systematically investigated. The initial copolymerization rate increased with an increase of temperature and V-50 content, contrary to the concentration of the PEG 20000 and DMMC. The molecular weight of the copolymers decreased with increasing the reaction parameters above mentioned. The apparent copolymerization activation energy of the system was calculated to be 65.7 kJ·mol -1 according to Arrhenius equation. The optimal PEG 20000 content of the system was 15%~25% (based on the raw materials). The relationship between the initial copolymerization rate (Rp) and the initiator concentration was discussed, and the kinetics equation was Rp~ [I] 0.94 .