Radical polymerization of vinyl acetate using p-acetylbenzylidene triphenylarsonium ylide as an initiator

p-Acetylbenzylidene triphenylarsonium ylide initiated radical polymerization of vinyl acetate in dioxane has been carried out at 65±0.1°C in polymerization tubes for 8 h under nitrogen. The initiator and monomer exponents are 0.44 and 1.5 respectively. The overall activation energy and value of k2p/kt are 35 kJ mol−1 and 6.06×10−3 l mol−1 s−1 respectively. The ylide is believed to dissociate to generate phenyl radicals which initiate the radical polymerization of vinyl acetate.