Kinetics and mechanism of emulsifier-free emulsion copolymerization: Styrene-methyl methacrylate-acrylic acid system

✍ Scribed by Cui'e Yan; Shiyuan Cheng; Linxian Feng

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 258 KB
• Volume: 37
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0887-624X
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-0518(19990715)37:14<2649::aid-pola40>3.0.co;2-l

✦ Synopsis

The emulsifier-free emulsion copolymerization of styrene (St) and methyl methacrylate (MMA) in the presence of functional monomer acrylic acid (AA) was carried out in batch process. The kinetics was investigated in detail using model function, Integrated Gamma Function. The morphology and size of particles were monitored continuously by TEM all along the polymerization. It was found that the nucleation, polymerization rate increase with increasing concentration of the functional monomer AA, initiator ammonium persulfate (APS), and polymerization temperature T, and APS plays a predominant role in the particle nucleation process. The particle nucleation stage ceased at about 10% conversion and the steady stage can be extended to about 70% conversion. The particle nucleation is likely to yield primary particle via the mechanism of homogeneous coagulative nucleation and coagulation of the primary particle to yield uniform particles. The particle growth in the postnucleation stage is via a shell growth mechanism.