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Optimizing nitroxide-mediated miniemulsion polymerization processes

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Abstract

Living/controlled radical polymerizations provide significant advantages in the control of polymer resin microstructure compared to conventional radical polymerization. Advances in our ability to tailor polymer microstructure will enable improvements in coatings properties and possible new applications of coating technologies. Adapting living radical polymerizations to heterogeneous media such as aqueous-based miniemulsion polymerization presents several challenges related to maintaining the livingness (the fraction of chains that are still “living” at the end of polymerization) of the polymer chains and also developing a commercially viable process. We have studied the nitroxide-mediated polymerization of styrene in miniemulsion, with the intent of maintaining a high degree of livingness by balancing the rates of biradical termination and disproportionation. We can now achieve >95% monomer conversion in less than three hours, while maintaining polydispersities ∼1.3. Monomer conversion can be dramatically increased from about 60–95% by changing the concentration of sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate (SDBS) surfactant. Conversions in Dowfax 8390 stabilized miniemulsions showed no comparable dependency. Reasons for this potentially commercially important effect are under investigation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Chemical Engineering, Queen’s University, K7L 3N6, Kingston, Ont., Canada

    Michael F. Cunningham & Marcus Lin

  2. Xerox Research Centre of Canada, 2660 Speakman Dr., L5K 2L1, Mississauga, Ont., Canada

    Barkev Keoshkerian

Authors
  1. Michael F. Cunningham
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  2. Marcus Lin
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  3. Barkev Keoshkerian
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Correspondence to Michael F. Cunningham.

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Cunningham, M.F., Lin, M. & Keoshkerian, B. Optimizing nitroxide-mediated miniemulsion polymerization processes. J Coat. Technol. Res. 1, 33–39 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11998-004-0022-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11998-004-0022-2

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