Modeling of Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization in Miniemulsion initiated by a Water-Soluble Radical Initiator

ZURMAN, AYELÉN; ASTEASUAIN, MARIANO; SARMORIA, CLAUDIA; BRANDOLIN, ADRIANA

San Francisco

Congreso; 2016 AIChE Annual Meeting; 2016

AIChE

Controlled radical polymerization (CRP) has emerged in the last few years as one of the most promising polymerization techniques. It allows the synthesis of polymers with predetermined molecular weight, low polydispersity and controlled molecular architecture in mild reaction conditions. The latter has been one of the most important advantages of CRP compared to anionic polymerization, which requires stringent operating condition.The main CRP variants include nitroxide-mediated polymerization (NMP), atom transfer radicalpolymerization (ATRP), and reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer radical polymerization (RAFT). All of them have proven to be robust and capable of synthetizing polymers with defined molecular weight, topology, composition, and functionalityIn the present work, a mathematical model was developed for a reverse ATRP in miniemulsion using a water-soluble initiator. This model is able to predict average molecular properties, such as number and weight molecular weights, as well as the full molecular weight distribution (MWD), andconstitutes a useful tool for predicting and optimizing such systems.