Frontal polymerization with encapsulated initiator

Frontal Polymerization (FP) is a process that converts monomers into polymers by means of a propagating spatially localized reaction front. In the simplest case, a mixture of monomers and initiator is placed into a test tube and upon initiation of the reaction at one end of the tube, a self-sustained wave develops and propagates through the tube. Monomer/initiator systems can suffer from a limited pot life, meaning that over a period of time the systems will spontaneously polymerize before they can be used. One way to avoid the undesirable spontaneous polymerization is by microencapsulating the initiator. A mathematical model of nonadiabatic FP waves with encapsulated initiator is presented.