Conversion Enhancement of Vinyl Acetate Monomer to Polyvinyl Acetate Emulsion through Emulsion Polymerization Method

Abstract

Synthesis of Polyvinyl Acetate (PVAc) through the conversion of Vinyl Acetate Monomer (VAM) was carried out by emulsion polymerization method assisted by thermal initiator Ammonium persulfate (APS) under reaction temperature was kept at 70 °C – 80 °C with 5 hours of reaction time and agitation speed at 300 rpm. The polymerization reaction was running used batch process technique where is all components were mixed all together simultaneously. A set of polymerization reactions was conducted when the absence of surfactant and cationic and amphoteric surfactant presence. The monomer chain's double bond was found at 1645 cm-1 was measured by FTIR Spectrophotometer did not disappear after polymerization reaction was utterly done. The spectrum FTIR of Polyvinyl acetate did not explicitly found at 1644 cm-1. During the reaction, characterization was conducted by measuring the solid content value where the maximum solid content was achieved was 6,1 % when using Amphoteric surfactant while the lowest solid content was obtained when the absence of surfactant. Other parameters were conducted to observe the acidity value by pH Meter.