Manufacturing Process for Acrylic Thickeners

These products are manufactured by copolymerising together in emulsion from two or more monomers, one of which is carboxyl containing. There are a number of options available both in terms of the carboxyl entity and in terms of the comonomers. Components are selected according to ease of copolymeiisation and end peaformance as thickeners. 

Typical non carboxylated acrylic monomers available are listed in Table 2-2. 

Methyl Acrylate Ethyl Acrylate N-Butyl Acrylate 2 Ethyl Hexyl Acrylate Methyl Methacrylate 

These polymers are supplied as low viscosity aqueous emulsions in their free acid state (un-ionised). When the pH is increased generally to between 8-10, the carboxyl groups will ionise causing chain expansion and disentanglement which results in significant viscosity increase. 

By combining the variants of molecular weight and degree of crosslinking, we can summarise the performance by reference to Tables 2-3 and 2-4. 

---