Experimental Investigation of AGET ATRP Polymerization of Butyl Methacrylate in an Emulsion Stirred Tank Reactor

This study investigates ATRP emulsion polymerization of butyl methacrylate (BMA) in a 2-L stirred tank reactor using AGET as the initiation technique with ascorbic acid. The polymerization is performed in two step procedure using surfactant (Brij 98) in distilled water. The reaction is initiated by the catalyst CuBr2/dNbpy and initiator EBiB under a blanket of nitrogen to minimize air presence. An experimental design is performed to investigate the effects of the key variables: temperature, catalyst complex, surfactant and reducing agent. For reaction temperatures of 50°C, 60°C and 70°C, BMA conversion obtained is 63.9%, 70.2% and 85.8%, respectively. All other nine tests are done at 70°C for appropriate amounts of reactants. The results concluded that BMA conversion improves to 90% and the PDI increases slightly from 1.15 to 1.29 for more ascorbic acid. BMA conversion and PDI improve with less surfactant, but more ligand narrows MWD and reduces the catalyst activity.