Radical polymerization of ethyl methacrylate (EMA) in the presence of fullerene (C60) using triphenylbismuthonium ylide as an initiator and characterization of the synthesized polymers (C60-EMA)

Radical polymerization of ethyl methacrylate (EMA) in the presence of fullerene (C60) has been carried out at 70 °C ± 1 °C in dioxan solvent under nitrogen atmosphere using triphenylbismuthonium ylide (abbreviated as Ylide) as an initiator. The polymerization reaction follows ideal kinetics: Rp ∝ [Ylide]0.498[C60]−1.03[EMA]1.01. The rate of polymerization varies directly with the concentration of initiator and monomer. However, the variation of rate of polymerization is observed to be inversed with increasing concentration of fullerene. This is attributed to the fact that fullerene acts as a strong radical scavenger. Again the rate of polymerization depends on the nature of the acrylate monomers. It decreases with the increase steric hindrance associated with the bulkiness of the pendant alkyl groups: MMA > EMA > BMA. The activation energy of EMA polymerization in the presence of fullerene is 63.18 KJ mol-1 which is found to be higher than that of the polymerization without fullerene (46.91 KJ mol−1). The fullerene containing polymers (C60-EMA) thus formed were characterized by FTIR, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, UV–vis and TGA/DSC analyses.