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Abstract
Free radical polymerization is the most frequently used technique to produce synthetic polymers. They represent more than 25% of the total volume of materials made by the mankind. 3% thereof correspond to water soluble polymers with annual growth rates estimated as 8%. Therefore, everything contributing to progress of the radical polymerization of water soluble monomers may be evaluated as signicant. This thesis was devoted to identify the influence of magnetic (MF) and electrostatic interactions on the kinetics and mechanism of the radical polymerization of water soluble monomers. Acrylamide (AM), acrylic acid (AA), its ionized species, acrylate (A-), and diallyldimethylammonium chloride (DADMAC) were selected for homo and copolymerization case studies. Thermal and photochemically initiated polymerizations were performed varying the MF intensity, pH, ionic strength, monomer and initiator concentration, conversion degree, viscosity and temperature of the polymerization medium. The thesis reports the experiments, results, and conclusions thereof, increasing gradually the complexity of the polymerization system. It was demonstrated that an hybrid mechanism rules the persulfate initiated polymerization of AM also at 0.05<[AM]<0.15 mol/L. The influence of pH on the AM-AA copolymerization, was quantified for 2