Emulsion polymerization and copolymerization in continuous reactor systems

Abstract

Abstract Continuous reactors are important for commercial production of latex products and they can be useful tools for fundamental polymerization kinetics studies. Results are presented for four projects: (i) elimination of conversion oscillations in continuous stirred‐tank reactors (CSTR) by use of a tubular prereactor; (ii) use of a seed‐fed CSTR to measure free radical transport from monomer‐swollen latex particles; (iii) development of a continuous process as an alternative to a commercial batch process; and (iv) determination of copolymerization kinetic parameters with a steady‐state CSTR system.