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Emulsion polymerization of styrene under pulsed microwave irradiation
Author(s) -
Zhu Xiulin,
Chen Jianying,
Cheng Zhenping,
Lu Jianmei,
Zhu Jian
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.12089
Subject(s) - polymerization , potassium persulfate , emulsion polymerization , materials science , styrene , irradiation , polymer , polymer chemistry , microwave , decomposition , chemical engineering , chemistry , copolymer , composite material , organic chemistry , physics , nuclear physics , quantum mechanics , engineering
We performed the emulsion polymerization of styrene successfully with potassium persulfate (KPS) as an initiator and sodium dodecylsulfonate as an emulsifier under high‐power pulsed microwave irradiation (PMI). We investigated the effects of the temperature, the concentration of initiator, and various parameters of PMI (i.e., irradiation power, duty cycle, irradiation energy, and pulse width) on the polymerization. The results indicated that PMI, compared to conventional heating (CH), caused a significant increase in the decomposition rate of KPS (2.4 times higher than that under CH at about 70°C) and in the amount of particles (5 times higher than that under CH); consequently, the polymerization rate was effectively enhanced. For initiator concentrations of 0.10 and 0.20 wt %, the enhancement of the polymerization rate under PMI was 129 and 38% greater, respectively, than that under CH. The glass‐transition temperature and the regularity composition of the polymers under PMI and CH showed no difference, which indicated that PMI had little effect on the physical properties and microstructure of the polymer. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 89: 28–35, 2003