Self-Initiated Butyl Acrylate Polymerizations in Bulk and in Solution Monitored By In-Line Techniques

Jonas Mätzig; Marco Drache; Sabine Beuermann

doi:10.3390/polym13122021

Self-Initiated Butyl Acrylate Polymerizations in Bulk and in Solution Monitored By In-Line Techniques

Polymers (Basel). 2021 Jun 21;13(12):2021. doi: 10.3390/polym13122021.

Authors

Jonas Mätzig¹, Marco Drache¹, Sabine Beuermann¹

Affiliation

¹ Institute of Technical Chemistry, Clausthal University of Technology, Arnold-Sommerfeld-Straße 4, 38678 Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Germany.

Abstract

High-temperature acrylate polymerizations are technically relevant, but yet not fully understood. In particular the mechanism and the kinetics of the thermal self-initiation is a topic of current research. To obtain more detailed information the conversion dependence of the polymerization rate, r_br, is determined via in-line DSC and FT-NIR spectroscopy for reactions in bulk and in solution at temperatures ranging from 80 to 160 °C. Solution polymerizations revealed that dioxane is associated with the highest r_br, while aromatic solvents result in the lowest values of r_br. Interestingly, r_br for polymerizations in solution with dioxane depends on the actual monomer concentration at a given time in the system, but is not depending on the initial monomer concentration. The overall rate of polymerization in bulk and in solution is well represented by an equation with three or four parameters, respectively, being estimated by multiple linear regression and the temperature as additional parameter.

Keywords: free-radical polymerization; n-butyl acrylate; self-initiation; solvent influence.