A study of the polymerization of styrene initiated by K–THF–GIC system

In this paper, the polymerization of styrene initiated by potassium (K)-tetrahydrofuran (THF)-graphite intercalation compound (GIC) (K–THF–GIC) was studied. The mechanism of the polymerization was determined to be anionic polymerization according to its characteristics. The effect of the concentration of the initiator and monomer was studied. It was found that the polymerization mainly occurred on the surface and edge of the intercalated graphite. It was also shown that the polarity of solvent has little effect on the polymerization yield in this system.