Major acrylic monomers

Synthetic emulsion polymers account for approximately 70% of the U.S. consumption of acrylate monomers. Major end uses for these latex polymers are coatings (32%), textiles (17%), adhesives (7%), paper (5%), and floor poHshes (3%). The U.S. producers of acryflc copolymer emulsions include Rohm and Haas, Reichhold, National Starch, Union Carbide, Air Products, Unocal, B. F. Goodrich, and H. B. Fuller. 

The chapters in this book are organized into three sections. A majority of the commercial photopolymerization systems are based on acrylate monomers therefore, the first several chapters focus on fundamental characterization of... 

A major commercial effort is the free radical grafting of various styrenic, vinylic, and acrylic monomers onto cellulose, starch, dextran, and chitosan. Grafting has been... 

Terpolymers in which the acrylate monomer is the major component are useful as ethylene-acrylate elastomers (trade name Vamac) [Hagman and Crary, 1985]. A small amount of an alkenoic acid is present to introduce sites (C=C) for subsequent crosslinking via reaction with primary diamines (Sec. 9-2d). These elastomers have excellent oil resistance and stability over a wide temperature range (—50 to 200°C). They are superior to nitrile and chloroprene rubbers. Although not superior to silicone and fluorocarbon elastomers, they are less costly uses include automotive (hydraulic system seals, hoses) and wire and cable insulation. 

Miscellaneous Copolymers. VP has been employed as a termonomer with various acrylic monomer—monomer combinations, especially to afford resins useful as hair fixatives. Because of major differences in reactivity, VP can be copolymerized with alpha-olefins, but the products are actually PVP grafted with olefin or olefin oligomers (151,152). Likewise styrene can be polymerized in the presence of PVP and the resulting dispersion is unusually stable, suggesting that this added resistance to separation is caused by some grafting of styrene onto PVP (153). The literature contains innumerable references to other copolymers but at present (ca 1997), those reviewed in this article are the only ones known to have commercial significance. 

Solution polymers are the second most important use for acrylic monomers, accounting for about 12% of the monomer consumption. The major end use for these polymers is in coatings, primarily industrial finishes. Other uses of acrylic monomers include graft copolymers, suspension polymers, and radiation curable inks and coatings. 

The formation of networks by addition polymerization of multifunctional monomers as minor components included with the monofunctional vinyl or acrylic monomer is industrially important in applications as diverse as dental composites and UV-cured metal coatings. The chemorheology of these systems is therefore of industrial importance and the differences between these and the step-growth networks such as amine-cured epoxy resins (Section 1.2.2) need to be understood. One of the major differences recognized has been that addition polymerization results in the formation of microgel at very low extents of conversion (<10%) compared with stepwise polymerization of epoxy resins, for which the gel point occurs at a high extent of conversion (e.g. 60%) that is consistent with the... 

MAJOR USES Used in the production of foods, rubber, dyes, paints, varnishes, acrylic monomers, motor fuels, oils and pharmaceuticals photography development polymerization inhibitor. 

When the sequences making up the segments are random copolymers, the prefix CO may be introduced, with the major component monomer preceding the minor constituent. A backbone polymer of butadiene-styrene rubber grafted with styrene containing a small percentage of acrylic acid would be described as poly[(butadiene-co-styrene)-(styrene-co-acrylic acid)] and could be schematically represented as... 

The earliest polymerization processes were either batch mode or semibatch. The semibatch method was used for products, where the two monomers differed greatly in reactivity, as in Union Carbide s early Dynel, acrylonitrile-vinyl chloride, process. Bulk, solution, and emulsion polymerization processes have also been developed for acrylonitrile and its copolymers. However, in recent years nearly every major acrylic fiber producer has used a continuous aqueous suspension process, employing a redox catalyst, followed by a series of steps, which includes slurry filtration and polymer drying. 

Homopolymers A basic CPB model is a horaopolymer with a long homopolymer main chain carrying homopolymer side chains in every repeating unit. The majority of reports have employed ATRP or the anionic polymerization of a (meth)acrylate monomer for the synthesis of a homopolymer backbone. ATRP is frequently... 

Over the past few years, we have developed a family of NVF derivatives prepared by base catalyzed addition of the acidic amide nitrogen to acrylates and related Michael acceptors (2-3). By employing the wide range of available Michael acceptors, a broad family of materials was prepared which show some very attractive properties. The derivatives tested to date have very low toxicity. Most are not water soluble and have much lower glass transition temperatures than NVF polymers. NVF and its derivatives also show significant similarities. They are all radically co-polymerizable with major vinyl monomers, particularly acrylamides, vinyl esters, acrylates and maleates. In particular, they are conveniently photocatalytically copolymerized with widely available acrylate based radcure components. Like NVF polymers, they can be hydrolyzed, but at much slower rates and to lower extents of conversion. 

Monomers, dimers and higher-molecular-weight oligomers are the predominant decomposition products of the lower alkyl polymers. The major degradation products of higher alkyl polyacrylates are olefins, alcohols and acrylate monomers (see Table 5), which are different from those of the lower alkyl polyacrylates. 

Generally, free radical addition reactions or homolytic chain propagation reactions are not stereoselective. However, Okamoto determined that Lewis acids can induce stereocontrol in the RP of acrylic monomers. Conditions for CRP in the presence of Lewis acids were developed. Therefore, all three major CRP processes, ATRP, RAFT, and NMP, were investigated... 

Vertical integration is a key feature of the acrylics market. The world s three major acrylics producers Lucite, Atoglas and Rohm, are all backward integrated into production of the methyl methacrylate (MMA) monomer and forward integrated into production of sheet and moulding... 

Styrene, although not an acrylic monomer is a major constituent in acrylic polymers for use in surface coatings and so is considered in this table. 

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