Spark discharge-initiated radical polymerization

Abstract

A new spark discharge initiated radical polymerization (SDRP) was developed. Monomer radicals were generated by spark discharge emitted from a Tesla coil as a resonant transformer generating high frequency and high voltage, and the monomer itself acted as an initiator for propagation in polymerization at the initial stage. Poly(styrene), poly(acrylonitrile), and poly(styrene)/poly(vinyl benzoate) were successfully synthesized by the SDRP. The versatile SDRP was further developed using 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine 1-oxyl free radical (TEMPO) to create dormant species to perform nitroxide-mediated-radical-polymerization. We employed d-limonene as a solvent for the SDRP because limonene can effectively dissolve the polymers. Furthermore, solitons of polyacetylene were employed as a polymerization initiator. The solutions as a carrier in polyacetylene was generated with spark discharge. This can be referred to as ''soliton-initiated polymerization''.

Keywords

• Copolymer
• Electric field
• Soliton-initiated polymerization
• Spark
• Tesla coil