Semibatch Aqueous Solution Polymerization of Acrylic Acid. Effect of Initiator, Chain Transfer Agent, and Reaction Temperature

CÁCERES, G.; MINARI, R.J.; VEGA, J.R.; GUGLIOTTA, L.M.

Los Cocos (Córdoba)

Simposio; V Simposio Argentino – Chileno de Polímeros - ARCHIPOL ‘09; 2009

The polyacrylic acid (PAA) is mainly produced by free-radical aqueous-solution polymerization. Due to the extremely high AA reactivity, it results difficult to control the reaction temperature (Tr) and the MWD under batch conditions. Semibatch solution polymerization of AA with potassium persulfate (KPS) as initiator was able to control Tr = 60ºC by feeding AA along the reaction (Minari et al., 2007). Such strategy is further investigated in this work, with the aim of analyzing the effect of Tr, the KPS concentration, and the addition of a chain transfer agent (CTA) on both kinetics and MWD.