Butyl acrylate/vinyl acetate emulsion copolymerization: Reaction monitoring and property evaluation.

Abstract

Several aspects of butyl acrylate/vinyl acetate (BA/VAc) polymerizations were investigated in this thesis. Polymerization process monitoring is a key factor in obtaining high quality products with prespecified properties. Therefore, a considerable part of this work was devoted to the real-time monitoring of BA/VAc emulsion polymerization reactions. An Attenuated Total Reflectance - Fourier Transform Infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy sensor was used for monitoring conversion and copolymer composition. Due to the novelty of this technique, in the first part of the study, the suitability of this technique for polymerization monitoring was investigated. In the second part of this thesis, the knowledge obtained from the off-line monitoring of the solution polymerizations was employed for the real time monitoring of six high-solids BA/VAc emulsion polymerizations. Finally, the latexes obtained in the second part of this thesis were characterized for a variety of polymer properties of interest to adhesive industry. Among the properties investigated were particle size, rheology, dynamic mechanical properties of the dry polymers and the shear and tensile strength of adhesive bonds when hard maple wood is used as a substrate. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)