Flash Latex Production in a Continuous Helical Photoreactor: Releasing the Brake Pedal on Acrylate Chain Radical Polymerization

Abraham Chemtob (1) , Emeline Lobry (2) , Agnès Rannée (3) , Florent Jasinski (4) , Marta Penconi (5) , Esther Oliveros (5) , André M Braun (6) , Adrien Criqui (7)

1 IS2M - Institut de Science des Matériaux de Mulhouse
2 LGC - Laboratoire de Génie Chimique
3 Université de Haute-Alsace (UHA) - Université de Haute-Alsace (UHA) Mulhouse - Colmar
4 LPIM - Laboratoire de Photochimie et d'Ingénierie Macromoléculaires
5 IMRCP - Interactions moléculaires et réactivité chimique et photochimique
6 KIT - Karlsruher Institut für Technologie
7 Departement de Photochimie Générale

The continuous photopolymerization of acrylate and methacrylate monomer miniemulsions (25 % solids content) was investigated at room temperature in a compact helix minireactor. Using n-butyl acrylate, the process yields 95 % conversion after only 27 s residence time, and gel-free high-molecular-weight products. Under optimized conditions, a 25-fold increase in efficiency was obtained when compared to a batch photopolymerization. The reaction setup offers a frugal process because of moderate irradiance (2.6 mW/cm 2), photoinitiator concentration (0.75 wt%), and low-power UV-A fluorescent lamp.

Domaines: Polymères

Abraham Chemtob, Emeline Lobry, Agnès Rannée, Florent Jasinski, Marta Penconi, et al.. Flash Latex Production in a Continuous Helical Photoreactor: Releasing the Brake Pedal on Acrylate Chain Radical Polymerization. Macromolecular Reaction Engineering, 2016, 10 (3), pp.261-268. ⟨10.1002/mren.201500060⟩. ⟨hal-02442182⟩