Ultrasonically initiated emulsion polymerization of methyl methacrylate

The ultrasonically initiated emulsion polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) was investigated. Experimental results show that sodium dodecyl sulfonate (SDS) surfactant plays a very important role in obtaining a high polymer yield, because in the absence of SDS, monomer conversion is near zero....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of polymer science. Part A, Polymer chemistry Polymer chemistry, 2001-10, Vol.39 (19), p.3356-3364
Main Authors: Liao, Yongqin, Wang, Qi, Xia, Hesheng, Xu, Xi, Baxter, Steven M., Slone, Robert V., Wu, Shuguang, Swift, Graham, Westmoreland, David G.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied sciences
emulsion polymerization
Exact sciences and technology
irradiation
methyl methacrylate
Organic polymers
Physicochemistry of polymers
Polymerization
Preparation, kinetics, thermodynamics, mechanism and catalysts
surfactants
ultrasonic
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Summary:The ultrasonically initiated emulsion polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) was investigated. Experimental results show that sodium dodecyl sulfonate (SDS) surfactant plays a very important role in obtaining a high polymer yield, because in the absence of SDS, monomer conversion is near zero. Thus, the surfactant serves as an initiator and as interfacial modifier in this system (MMA/H2O), and the monomer conversion increases significantly with increasing SDS concentration. An increase in the reactor temperature also leads to an increase in the monomer conversion. An appropriate increase in the N2 purging rate also leads to higher conversion. The conversion of MMA decreases with increasing monomer concentration because of the higher viscosity of the system. With the experimental results, optimized reaction conditions were obtained. Accordingly, a high monomer conversion of about 67% and a high molecular weight of several millions can be obtained in a period of about 30 min. Furthermore, transmission electron micrographs show that the latex particles prepared are nanosized, indicating a promising technique for preparing nanoscale latex particles with a small amount of surfactant. In conclusion, a promising technique for ultrasonically initiated emulsion polymerization has been successfully performed. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 39: 3356–3364, 2001 The ultrasonically initiated emulsion polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) was investigated. The surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfonate (SDS) plays a very important role in obtaining a high polymer yield and serves as an initiator and interfacial modifier; the monomer conversion increases with increasing SDS concentration. An increasing reactor temperature and an increasing N2 purging rate leads to an increase in the MMA conversion. The MMA conversion decreases with increasing MMA concentration. Under optimized reaction conditions, a high MMA conversion of about 67% and a high molecular weight of several millions can be obtained in about 30 min.
ISSN:0887-624X
1099-0518
DOI:10.1002/pola.1318