Effect of ultrasound in the free radical polymerization of acrylonitrile under a new multi-site phase-transfer catalyst – A kinetic study

The kinetics of polymerization of acrylonitrile (AN) was carried out under heterogeneous condition using a new multi-site phase-transfer catalyst (MPTC), viz., N,N′-dihexyl-4,4′-bipyridinium dibromide in the presence of water soluble initiator, potassium peroxydisulphate (PDS) under chlorobenzene/water two phase system assisted by ultrasound irradiation at constant temperature 60 + 1 °C under nitrogen atmosphere. The rate of polymerization increases with an increasing the concentrations of AN, MPTC and PDS. The order with respect to [AN], [MPTC], and [PDS] were found to be 1.01, 1.03 and 0.52, respectively. Based on the observed results a suitable mechanism has been proposed to account for the experimental observations followed by a discussion on its significance.