Measurements of monomer partitioning in emulsion copolymerization systems

✍ Scribed by Riccardo Tognacci; Giuseppe Storti; Alberto Bertucco

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 709 KB
• Volume: 62
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0021-8995
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-4628(19961226)62:13<2341::aid-app19>3.0.co;2-5

✦ Synopsis

A new apparatus to measure the equilibrium solvent activity in a multiphase system containing a particulated polymer is presented. An experimental procedure to determine the monomer partitioning in typical emulsion copolymerization systems is developed; the method is devised in a way that no phase separation between water and swollen polymer particles is required in order to determine the monomer content in each phase. The analytical technique used is quantitative gas chromatography, either of the vapor or of the liquid phases. Different monomers (styrene, methyl methacrylate, and vinyl acetate) and polymeric matrices (polystyrene and methyl methacrylate-vinyl acetate copolymer) are examined both above and below saturation conditions (corresponding to intervals I1 and I11 of an emulsion polymerization process). The experimental results are compared with predictions of a literature model.