The Influence of the Solvent on the Rates of Chain Propagation and Termination Reactions in Radical Polymerisation

The influence of the solvent on the rate of radical polymerisation and copolymerisation, observed and investigated in the last ten years and caused mainly by a change in the rate of the elementary chain propagation reaction, is discussed. The published data on the polymerisation and copolymerisation of a number of monomers in solvents of different types are surveyed. Attention is drawn to the fact that the greatest effects are observed for polar monomers, particularly for water-soluble monomers in an aqueous medium. The causes of the change in the overall rate of reaction, the constants k_p, and the copolymerisation constants for different monomers are examined.
The bibliography includes 104 references.