Cathodic Aqueous Polymerization of Acrylamide with ZnCl2

The electroinitiated polymerization has been described here. The polymerization mixture consisted of monomer dissolved in an aqueous solution of ZnCl2, and was subjected to electrolysis in a divided cell. The rates of polymerization increased linearly with increase in applied current level and monomer concentration. Polymers of high molecular weights (≍105) were obtained from intrinsic viscosity measurements that increased with monomer concentration. The cyclic voltammogram of acrylamide in H2O -ZnCl2 solution suggests that the monomer gets directly reduced at cathode and the polymerization mechanism is anoinic.