Sulfated surfactants manufacturing process

Industrial surfactants find uses in almost every industry, from asphalt manufacturing to carpet fibers, from pulp and paper production to leather processing. Examples of the types of chemicals used as surfactants are fatty alcohol sulfates, alkanolamides, alkoxylates, sulfosuccinates, amines, quaternaries, phosphate esters, acid esters, blockcopolymers, betaines, imidazolines, alkyl sulfonates, etc. 

Probably the most widely used industrial emulsion or dispersion adhesives are those based on poly(vinyl acetate), commonly referred to as PVA. These product are normally manufactured by emulsion polymerization whereby, basically, vinyl acetate monomer is emulsified in water with a suitable colloid-emulsifier system, such as poly(vinyl alcohol) and sodium lauryl sulfate, and, with the use of water soluble initiator such as potassium persulfate, is polymerized. The polymerization takes place over a period of four hours at 70°C. Because the reaction is exothermic, provisions must be made for cooling when the batch size exceeds a few liters. The presence of surfactants (emulsifiers) and water-soluble protective colloids facilitates the process resulting in a stable dispersion of discrete polymer particles in the aqueous phase. 

Surfactant-free emulsion polymerization is an important industrial process for the manufacture of water-based polymeric materials with excellent water resistance and adhesion properties. In the absence of surfactant, the colloidal stability of the polymerization system can be achieved by using a persulfate initiator such as potassium persulfate. In addition to initiating free radical polymerization, the negatively charged sulfate end-groups (-SO4) of oligomeric radicals origmating from the persulfate initiator molecules, which are anchored on the surfaces of particle nuclei, act as an electrostatic stabilizer that impart colloidal stabihty to the latex particles. Due to the relatively low particle... 

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