The activity of periodic acid as an initiator for the polymerization of acrylamide in aqueous medium was investigated. The rate of polymerization was found to be proportional to the monomer concentration to the 1.5th power in the range of 1.41-5.64 mol/L. The reaction order to the periodic acid concentration was 0.49, which indicated a bimolecular mechanism for the termination reaction in the range of 0.5-4.0$ imes$10$^$-2/ mol/L. Propagation rate increased with raising the temperature according to an Arrhenius expression resulting in the exhibition of an apparent activation energy of 87.8 kJ/mol in the temperature range of 60-80$^{C}$. The addition of hydroquinone as a radical scavenger stopped the polymerization of acrylamide initiated by periodic acid. These results support that the polymerization proceeds via a radical chain mechanism .