Modeling methyl methacrylate free radical polymerization: Reaction in hydrophilic nanopores

In previous work, we developed a simplified model for the diffusion controlled bulk polymerization of methyl methacrylate and extended the model to capture the reaction under nanoconfinement. The calorimetric conversion versus time data in bulk and in silanized hydrophobic nanopores was well captured by the model. Here we further extend the model to capture the reaction in native hydrophilic controlled pore glass (CPG) nanopores accounting for catalysis by surface silanol groups. The ability of the model to describe experimental data is tested. In order to fit the data, the parameters describing monomer and active chain diffusion differ from that in hydrophobic pores.

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