Conventional emulsion polymerization

Manufacturing processes have been improved by use of on-line computer control and statistical process control leading to more uniform final products. Production methods now include inverse (water-in-oil) suspension polymerization, inverse emulsion polymerization, and continuous aqueous solution polymerization on moving belts. Conventional azo, peroxy, redox, and gamma-ray initiators are used in batch and continuous processes. Recent patents describe processes for preparing transparent and stable microlatexes by inverse microemulsion polymerization. New methods have also been described for reducing residual acrylamide monomer in finished products. 

An emulsion polymerization reaction follows three conventional steps, namely, initiation, propagation, and termination. These steps can be described by the conventional reactions that are valid for any free radical polymerization. Smith and Ewart [10] proposed that a forming latex particle in an ideal emulsion polymeriza-... 

Preparation of uniform seed particles Soapless emulsion polymerization is usually preferred for the preparation of uniform seed particles since this technique provides emulsifier-free, larger, and highly uniform micropheres relative to those that can be obtained by the conventional emulsion recipes including emulsifiers and various additives. The size of uniform seed particles with the soapless emulsion procedure is in the range of 0.6-1.2 tm depending on the polymerization conditions [75,108]. 

Microemulsion and miniemulsion polymerization differ from emulsion polymerization in that the particle sizes are smaller (10-30 and 30-100 nm respectively vs 50-300 inn)4" and there is no monomer droplet phase. All monomer is in solution or in the particle phase. Initiation takes place by the same process as conventional emulsion polymerization. 

Microemulsion and miniemulsion polymerization processes differ from emulsion polymerization in that the particle sizes are smaller (10-30 and 30-100 nm respectively vs 50-300 ran)77 and there is no discrete monomer droplet phase. All monomer is in solution or in the particle phase. Initiation usually takes place by the same process as conventional emulsion polymerization. As particle sizes reduce, the probability of particle entry is lowered and so is the probability of radical-radical termination. This knowledge has been used to advantage in designing living polymerizations based on reversible chain transfer (e.g. RAFT, Section 9.5.2)." 2... 

Some of the issues associated with RAFT emulsion polymerization have been attributed to an effect of chain length-dependent termination.528 In conventional emulsion polymerization, most termination is between a long radical and a short radical. For RAFT polymerization at low conversion most chains are short thus the rate of termination is enhanced. Conversely, at high conversion most chains are long and the rate of termination is reduced. 

Copolymers of a cationic monomer and a vinyl alkoxysilane may be prepared by conventional vinyl polymerization techniques. These techniques include solution polymerization in water and emulsion polymerization with either free radical initiators or redox initiators. 

Complex formation takes place in an organic solvent or in a water/monomer mixture by reaction of the macroligand with a metal compound (e.g. a Cu(I)-ha-lide). It is supposed that the conditions in the reaction mixture are comparable to those in conventional emulsion polymerization, where monomer droplets stabilized by surfactant molecules coexist with monomer swollen micelles [64]. Reaction sites are presumably the hydrophobic core of the micelles and the monomer droplets as well. Initial results of the micellar-catalyzed ATRP of methyl methacry-... 

Solution polymerization is bulk polymerization in which excess monomer serves as the solvent. Solution polymerization, used at approximately 13 plants, is a newer, less conventional process than emulsion polymerization for the commercial production of crumb mbber. Polymerization generally proceeds by ionic mechanisms. This system permits the use of stereospecific catalysts of the Ziegler-Natta or alkyl lithium types which make it possible to polymerize monomers into a cis structure characteristic that is very similar to that of natural rubber. This cis structure yields a rubbery product, as opposed to a trans stmcture which produces a rigid product similar to plastics. 

In the conventional emulsion polymerization, a hydrophobic monomer is emulsified in water and polymerization initiated with a water-soluble initiator. Emulson polymerization can also be carried out as an inverse emulsion polymerization [Poehlein, 1986]. Here, an aqueous solution of a hydrophilic monomer is emulsified in a nonpolar organic solvent such as xylene or paraffin and polymerization initiated with an oil-soluble initiator. The two types of emulsion polymerizations are referred to as oil-in-water (o/w) and water-in-oil (w/o) emulsions, respectively. Inverse emulsion polymerization is used in various commerical polymerizations and copolymerizations of acrylamide as well as other water-soluble monomers. The end use of the reverse latices often involves their addition to water at the point of application. The polymer dissolves readily in water, and the aqueous solution is used in applications such as secondary oil recovery and flocculation (clarification of wastewater, metal recovery). 

Nonionic surfactants such as sorbitan monooleate yield more stable emulsions than do ionic surfactants, However, the latices from inverse emulsion polymerizations are generally less stable than those from conventional emulsion polymerizations, and flocculation is a problem. 

When conventional surfactants are used in emulsion polymerization, difficulties are encountered which are inherent in their use. Conventional surfactants are held on the particle surface by physical forces thus adsorption/des-orption equilibria always exist, which may not be desirable. They can interfere with adhesion to a substrate and may be leached out upon contact with water. Surfactant migration affects film formation and their lateral motion during particle-particle interactions can cause destabilization of the colloidal dispersion. 

Several methodologies for preparation of monodisperse polymer particles are known [1]. Among them, dispersion polymerization in polar media has often been used because of the versatility and simplicity of the process. So far, the dispersion polymerizations and copolymerizations of hydrophobic classical monomers such as styrene (St), methyl methacrylate (MMA), etc., have been extensively investigated, in which the kinetic, molecular weight and colloidal parameters could be controlled by reaction conditions [6]. The preparation of monodisperse polymer particles in the range 1-20 pm is particularly challenging because it is just between the limits of particle size of conventional emulsion polymerization (100-700 nm) and suspension polymerization (20-1000 pm). 

The emulsifier provides sites for the particle nucleation and stabilizes growing or the final polymer particles. Even though conventional emulsifiers (anionic, cationic, and nonionic) are commonly used in emulsion polymerization, other non-conventional ones are also used they include reactive emulsifiers and amphiphilic macromonomers. Reactive emulsifiers and macromonomers, which are surface active emulsifiers with an unsaturated group, are chemically bound to the surface of polymer particles. This strongly reduces the critical amount of emulsifier needed for stabilization of polymer particles, desorption of emulsifier from particles, formation of distinct emulsifier domains during film formation, and water sensitivity of the latex film. 

Miniemulsion polymerizations follow a different mechanism from the conventional (macroemulsion) emulsion polymerizations. Radicals generated in... 

Microemulsion polymerizations follow a different mechanism from the conventional emulsion polymerizations. The most probable locus of particle nucle-ation was suggested to be the microemulsion monomer droplets [27], although homogeneous nucleation was not completely ruled out. The particle generation rate in microemulsion polymerization is given by an expression similar to Eq. (21), which was used for the miniemulsion polymerization of styrene [28] ... 

Ferguson et al. [52] compared the behavior of a range of conventional alkyl ethoxylate surfactants in emulsion polymerizations with their acrylated analogues. This has allowed a direct comparison of identical surfactant structures, one of which remains kinetically mobile in the resultant lattices, while the other becomes chemically bound to the latex particles. The surfactants chosen for this study were C12 i4-(EO)30 with C12 14-(EO)30-A and C12 14-(EO)12 with C12 14-... 

Research (Fontenot and Schork 1993a, b) indicates that miniemulsion polymerization can provide benefits over the current process technology of conventional emulsion polymerization. Among these are a process which is much more robust to contamination and operating errors, a more uniform copolymer composition when used for copolymerization, and a final product which is far more shear-stable than the product of conventional emulsion polymerization. 

Although the early literature described the application of a tubular reactor for the production of SBR latexes(1), the standard continuous emulsion polymerization processes for SBR polymerization still consist of continuous stirred tank reactors(CSTR s) and all of the recipe ingredients are normally fed into the first reactor and a latex is removed from the last one, as shown in Figure 1. However, it is doubtful whether this conventional reactor combination and operation method is the most efficient in continuous emulsion polymerization. As is well known, the kinetic behavior of continuous emulsion polymerization differs very much according to the kind of monomers. In this paper, therefore, the discussion about the present subject will be advanced using the... 

The latexes were prepared using a conventional semi-batch emulsion polymerization system modified for power-feed by the addition of a second monomer tank. Polymerization temperatures ranged from 30-85°C using either redox or thermal initiators. Samples were taken periodically during the polymerization and analyzed to determine residual monomer in order to assure a "starved-feed" condition. As used in this study this is a condition in which monomer feed rate and polymerization rate are identical and residual monomer levels are less than 5%. 

The most common continuous emulsion polymerization systems require isothermal reaction conditions and provide for conversion control through manipulation of initiator feed rates. Typically, as shown in Figure 1, flow rates of monomer, water, and emulsifier solutions into the first reactor of the series are controlled at levels prescribed by the particular recipe being made and reaction temperature is controlled by changing the temperature of the coolant in the reactor jacket. Manipulation of the initiator feed rate to the reactor is then used to control reaction rate and, subsequently, exit conversion. An aspect of this control strategy which has not been considered in the literature is the complication presented by the apparent dead-time which exists between the point of addition of initiator and the point where conversion is measured. In many systems this dead-time is of the order of several hours, presenting a problem which conventional control systems are incapable of solving. This apparent dead-time often encountered in initiation of polymerization. 

Microemulsion polymerization, as the name implies, involves free-radical polymerization in extremely small size, microemulsified monomer droplets of about 1-10 nm diameter [792], The produced polymer particles tend to be small (10 nm) and have higher molar mass (106-107 g/mol) than can be obtained from conventional emulsion polymerization [792]. 

Instead of conventional surfactant molecules, amphiphilic water soluble macromonomers, especially PEO macromonomers, have been used extensively as a reactive emulsifier and as steric stabilizer polymer, as summarized in Table 5. Generally speaking, however, the mechanism for the particle nucleation in the emulsion polymerization systems using macromonomers has been poorly established when compared to the dispersion copolymerizations with macromonomers as mentioned earlier. 

Inisurfs, Transurfs and Surfmers may be used to reduce/avoid the use of conventional surfactants in emulsion polymerization. However, when Inisurfs and Transurfs are used, the stability of the system cannot be adjusted without affecting either the polymerization rate (Inisurfs) or the molecular weight distribution (Transurfs). Furthermore, the efficiency rate of Inisurfs is low due to the cage effect. It is therefore not obvious yet that these classes will become commercially significant. 

The key feature of Inisurfs is their surfactant behavior. They form micelles and are adsorbed at interfaces, and as such they are characterized by a critical micelle concentration (CMC) and an area/molecule in the adsorbed state. This influences both the decomposition behavior and the radical efficiency, which are much lower than those for conventional, low molecular weight initiators. Tauer and Kosmella [4] have observed that in the emulsion polymerization of styrene, using an Inisurf concentration above the CMC resulted in an increase in the rate constant of the production of free radicals. This was attributed to micellar catalysis effects as described, for example, by Rieger [5]. Conversely, if the Inisurf concentration was below the CMC the rate constant of the production of free radicals decreased with an increase in the Inisurf concentration, which was attributed to enhanced radical recombination. Also note that a similar effect of the dependence of initiator efficiency on concentration was reported by Van Hook and Tobolsky for azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) [6]. 

The concept of using reactive surfactants in emulsion polymerization processes is relatively recent and aims at eliminating the drawbacks associated with the use of conventional, monomeric, nonreactive surfactants. Despite the demonstrated advantages and the availability of commercial products, reactive surfactants have not yet reached a widespread... 

The emulsion polymerization of styrene with shellac salt stabilizer yields a highly crosslinked, F/T stable emulsion from which it is not possible to extract all the shellac by conventional means (21). This may be interpreted in a similar manner although it has not, as yet, been possible to determine the sites on the shellac which undergo chain transfer. 

In the conventional emulsion polymerization, monomer droplets are dispersed ip an aqueous phase containing micellar aggregates of surfactant. In this case, the dispersed phase represents a relatively small volume fraction of the system and the micellar aggregates constitute the sites of the polymerization process. In the gel(paste)-like emulsions employed here, the volume fraction of the dispersed phase can be as high as 0.99, and the cells of the concentrated emulsion lead to the polymerized latex particles. 

Unlike the conventional emulsion polymerization, in which the polymer latexes grow during polymerization, the size and shape of the latexes in concentrated emulsions is principally determined by the preparation of the gel. 

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