Monomer consumption rates during gelation at various temperatures: A fast transient fluorescence study

Abstract

AbstractThe gelation during free‐radical crosslinking copolymerization (FCC) of methyl methacrylate (MMA) and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDM) was studied by using fast transient fluorescence (FTRF) technique. Pyrene (Py) was used as a probe for the FTRF experiments. Fluorescence lifetimes of Py from its decay traces were measured and used to monitor the gelation process at various temperatures. MMA consumption rates were measured during gelation process by using the Stern–Volmer model. Gelation activation energy ΔEG was measured and found to be 15.6 kcal mol−1. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 81: 3161–3168, 2001