Modeling of elementary reactions and kinetics of radical-initiated methyl methacrylate polymerization in the presence of ferrocene

On the basis of quantum chemical modeling, a kinetic scheme of methyl methacrylate polymerization initiated by benzoyl peroxide in the presence of ferrocene was proposed. The process runs by mechanism, which includes the reactions of free radical polymerization, and the reactions leading to formation and operability of two type coordination active sites that are capable of converting into each other. On the basis of the proposed scheme, a kinetic model was developed. This model quantitatively described the following: the experimentally determined time dependences of the methyl methacrylate conversion, the conversion dependencies of the number-average and weight-average molar masses of poly(methyl methacrylate), the stereoregularity values of poly(methyl methacrylate), and the time dependencies of the methyl methacrylate conversion upon its polymerization on poly(methyl methacrylate) macroinitiators obtained in radical-initiated polymerization in the presence of ferrocene. As a result of solving the inverse kinetic problem, the parameters of temperature dependences of the reaction rate coefficients of the proposed kinetic scheme were found.