Date of Award
6-1950
Document Type
Open Access
Degree Name
Bachelor of Science
Department
Chemistry
Language
English
Abstract
The purpose of this work is to study the rate of reaction and mechanism of various inhibitors in the thermal, uncatalyzed polymerization of styrene. Other attempts have been made to study the inhibitory process, the most recent making use of a dilatometer to measure volume changes during the course of polymerization. However, this method, and others, represents indirect means of study. The spectrophotometric method of study presented here, offers a simple and direct method for determining the rate of disappearance of an inhibitor in the inhibition process, and also affords a method calculating the rate constants for the initiation stage of polymerization. This method however, had its limitations. Only inhibitors which are colored in solution and which lose their color during the inhibition process, can be successfully studied, since all spectrophotometric measurements are made in the visible spectrum. Some of the family of compounds known as quinones come in this category. The method was tried unsuccessfully on a nitroso compound, p-nitrosodimethylainline. The work is divided into two main parts; one dealing with a study of p-benzoquinone, the other study of chloranil (tetrachloroquinone). Each study is further divided into spectrophotometric measurements and viscosity measurements. The purpose of the viscosity data is to correlate and validate the basic assumptions made.
Recommended Citation
Cohen, Lester Allan, "Inhibition of the thermal polymerization of styrene" (1950). Honors Theses. 1758.
https://digitalworks.union.edu/theses/1758
Rights Statement
