Studies of crosslinked styrene–alkyl acrylate copolymers for oil absorbency application. I. Synthesis and characterization

✍ Scribed by Jyongsik Jang; Beom-Seok Kim

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 214 KB
• Volume: 77
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0021-8995
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-4628(20000725)77:4<903::aid-app26>3.0.co;2-e

✦ Synopsis

The prepolymers for a novel oil absorbent were synthesized by copolymerizing styrene with 2-ethylhexyl acrylate (EHA), lauryl acrylate (LA), lauryl methacrylate (LMA), and stearyl acrylate (SA). Suspension polymerization was carried out using benzoyl peroxide (BPO) as an initiator with a varying monomer feed ratio, and the copolymers were characterized by FTIR, 1 H-NMR, DSC, and a solubility test. The copolymers were random copolymers with a single phase, and their compositions were similar to those in the monomer feed. The T g of the copolymer could be controlled by varying the styrene/acrylate ratio. Acrylates introduced the crosslinking to linear polymers as a side reaction. Crosslinked copolymers were synthesized by adding divinylbenzene (DVB) as a crosslinking agent. At a low degree of crosslinking (0.5 wt % DVB), the T g of the crosslinked copolymers was lower than or similar to that of the uncrosslinked ones. At a high degree of crosslinking, the T g increased with increasing crosslinking density.