The gels are composed of a monomer and a crosslinker and insoluble in organic solvents due to crossliniing. Can anyone suggest a method of quantification of conversion of the starting material after the reaction? Thanks
You are right that after gelation reaction the system contains all reactive and unreactive fragments of the reaction mixture. But, I think it can be done easily by just avoiding the crosslinker. Therefore, you can run reactions with and without crosslinker and analyze the products gravimetrically. Due to the absence of crosslinker, the formed polymer can be purified by simple solvent washing to get structural information. You can simply run HNMR spectra of your polymers and monomers and calculate the conversion from corresponding peak integrals.
best of luck.
I suggest measuring the "gel content" of the polymer.
To do so, find a best solvent for the monomers, then run Soxhlet apparatus with solvent to extract unreacted monomers from the polymer. The weight loss percentage will dictate the conversion.
Kumkum Ahmed,
I have attached herewith the Article for your reference.
Kindly go through the same.
Article Gelation in addition polymerization
I hope I have answered your question.
With Best Wishes,
Samir G. Pandya
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