Polymerization of olefins and diolefins in suspension and emulsion. Part I.

Abstract

This and a following article review the literature from 1910–1945 on polymerization of olefins and diolefins in suspension and emulsion, and present a number of new measurements not published to date. The subject is considered mainly from the point of view of scientific information on the mechanism of polymerization in aqueous suspensions and emulsions, but brief mention is also made of the more important disclosures in the patent literature. The new data presented in this article refer to (1) initial rates of polymerization of styrene, methyl methacrylate, vinyl acetate and acrylonitrile in aqueous suspensions and in soap emulsions as a function of catalyst concentration, temperature, and soap concentration; (2) influence of water‐soluble activators, such as sodium bisulfite; (3) influence of initial size of monomer droplets on initial rates of monomer consumption; (4) study, with the aid of the electron microscope, of size of monomer droplets and polymer particles throughout polymerization; and (5) a few experiments on side reactions in the domain of higher conversions. No attempt is made in this paper to review and appraise the very large number of recent patents (from about 1930 on), which protect special procedures on the use of various promoting, regulating, or modifying ingredients. A complete digest of this practice does not exist at present, but reference may be made to the excellent chapter on emulsion polymerization in the book of Talalay and Magat (55), to the very valuable compilation of patents by Hosch in “India Rubber World” (27), and to the enumeration of a selected number of patents in the book of Scheiber (50) on pages 210–213.