Polymer dispersion types and their applications

There is a wide range of different types of synthetic polymer dispersions, incorporating many monomers in a variety of combinations (Farmer, 1994). Some examples of dispersion types include  

If gaseous monomers such as ethylene or vinyl chloride are used, the production processes involve polymerisation at high pressures and the polymers formed are commonly referred to as pressure polymers , e.g. copolymers of VA/E or terpolymers of VA/E/VC or VA/E/2-EHA (2-ethylhexyl acrylate). Other non-gaseous monomers may be polymerised together to form polymers in low pressure systems and these polymers are commonly referred to as conventional polymers or atmospheric polymers , e.g. VA homopolymers, Ac polymers of methylmethacrylate. Furthermore, the use of other functional monomeric units to give the polymer specific application properties, such as cross linking in cured textile fabric applications (e.g. V-methylol acrylamide, acrylamide and many others), are often employed and these polymers are commonly referred to as speciality polymers . Common to all polymerisation reactions the processes are usually carried out in a batch-wise system, but continuous processes can also be employed. 

Polymer dispersions are used in a large number of industries for the production of a rapidly increasing variety of routine and specialised products. 

Elsom (1988) listed the following (Table 5) as major applications in which they are incorporated. 

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