Robust nucleation in polymer-stabilized miniemulsion polymerization

✍ Scribed by J. Reimers; F. J. Schork

• Book ID: 102653885
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 625 KB
• Volume: 59
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0021-8995
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-4628(19960321)59:12<1833::aid-app4>3.0.co;2-r

✦ Synopsis

The addition of a monomer soluble polymer to an emulsion was found to slow the effects of Ostwald ripening and impart diffusional stability to the droplets. Droplet nucleation was found to be the dominant nucleation mechanism in the polymerization of these polymerstabilized miniemulsions (as distinguished from true miniemulsions). As a result these nucleations were more robust, and the polymerizations were less sensitive to variations in the recipe or contaminants levels. This was evident in the rates of polymerization and in the particle numbers. The miniemulsion polymerizations were subjected to changes in initiator concentration, a water-phase retarder, an oil-phase inhibitor, and agitation. Particle number was found to vary with each of these factors to the powers of 0.002,0.02,0.0031, and -0.026, respectively. The corresponding exponents for conventional emulsion were one to two orders of magnitude greater. These results demonstrate the potential of miniemulsion polymerization to greatly reduce the variability in particle number found in conventional emulsion polymerizations.