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Relative Rates of Branching in Emulsion and Miniemulsion Polymerization
Author(s) -
Schork F. Joseph,
Lu Fujun
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
macromolecular reaction engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.37
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 1862-8338
pISSN - 1862-832X
DOI - 10.1002/mren.200900036
Subject(s) - miniemulsion , monomer , branching (polymer chemistry) , polymerization , emulsion polymerization , polymer chemistry , polymer , emulsion , materials science , precipitation polymerization , chemical engineering , chemistry , radical polymerization , organic chemistry , composite material , engineering
Abstract This communication describes the potential advantages of using a miniemulsion rather than an emulsion process for the polymerization of synthetic rubbers in which the polymerization is ended (short‐stopped) considerably before full conversion in order to limit excessive branching brought on by a high polymer‐to‐monomer ratio in the polymer particles. Because the polymer‐to‐monomer ratio in the particle at low monomer conversion is much lower in a miniemulsion, a miniemulsion can be polymerized to a significantly higher conversion than a conventional emulsion while maintaining an equivalent degree of branching. Short‐stopping at a higher monomer conversion will result in substantially reduced processing costs associated with recovery and recycle of unpolymerized monomer.