Investigating the Effectiveness of Reactive Dispersants in Non-Aqueous Dispersion Polymerization

Abstract

Non-aqueous dispersion (NAD) radical polymerization is used to produce poly(acrylic) nanoparticles (<200 nm) at 60 wt% solids content by a starved-feed semibatch process, with steric stabilization provided by a low molecular weight vinyl-functionalized polymeric dispersant. The performance of a vinyl-terminated BMA macromer is compared to that of a butyl methacrylate (BMA) based grafted dispersant with vinyl groups attached at random positions along the backbone. The macromer dispersant is incorporated more effectively than the randomly grafted dispersant, a result attributed to the uniform distribution of reactive double bonds across the entire dispersant molar mass distribution, although the effectiveness of the macromer dispersant decreases when methacrylates are components of the NAD recipe.