Investigation on the kinetics and thermodynamics of polyacrylonitrile-b-poly(hydroxyethyl acrylate) via organotellurium-mediated living radical polymerization by micro-calorimeter

The polyacrylonitrile- b -poly(hydroxyethyl acrylate) (PAN- b -PHEA) was synthesized of polyacrylonitrile-TeMe (PAN-TeMe) and 2-Hydroxyethyl acrylate (HEA) via organotellurium-mediated living radical polymerization (TERP), and the PAN-TeMe and PAN- b -PHEA were characterized by several methods. A Calvet micro-calorimeter was used to investigate the polymerization of PAN-TeMe and HEA at different temperatures (358.15 K, 363.15 K, 368.15 K, 373.15 K, 378.15 K and 383.15 K). The kinetic equations of polymerization at different temperatures were obtained, and the apparent activation energy ( E ) of polymerization is 16.43±0.17 kJ∙mol −1 and the pre-exponential factor ( A ) is 0.6845±0.0366 s −1 . Furthermore, the thermodynamic parameters including the standard molar Gibbs free energy of activation ( Δ G ≠ θ $\Delta G_{\ne }^{\text{θ}}$ ), the standard molar enthalpy of activation ( Δ H ≠ θ $\Delta H_{\ne }^{\text{θ}}$ ) and the standard molar entropy of activation ( Δ S ≠ θ $\Delta S_{\ne }^{\text{θ}}$ ) are acquired.