Electro-initiated cationic polymerization in the presence of potassium hexafluoroantimonate

Abstract

This work presents the electrochemically-induced polymerization of vinyl ether monomers by using potassium hexafluoroantimonate (KSbF₆) as the initiating species. Static characterization of the resulting polymers was investigated by ATR-FT-IR. Real-time FT-NIR was used to study the kinetics of the electro-initiated polymerizations. Under certain conditions, rapid cationic polymerization kinetic profiles and high final conversion of monomer to polymer could be obtained. The reaction rate could be readily adjusted based on the applied voltage or by the introduction of an alkaline additive, which along with the observation of extended post curing clearly demonstrated the cationic nature of the electrochemical process. The thermo-stability of the polymerized product was investigated by TGA.