Online Monitoring of Copolymerization Involving Comonomers of Similar Spectral Characteristics

Abstract

Automatic continuous online monitoring of polymerization reactions (ACOMP) was applied to free radical copolymerization of acrylic comonomers, whose spectral characteristics are very similar. Determination of the instantaneous concentration of each comonomer during the reaction was made possible by incorporating a full spectrum UV spectrophotometer into the detector train. The working assumption was that a UV spectrum at any instant during conversion is a linear combination of the normalized basis spectra of the comonomers and the copolymer, and that the unknown comonomer concentrations can be found by minimizing the error between measured and computed spectra over many wavelengths, even when spectral differences are small at any given wavelength. Here, the copolymerization of butyl acrylate (BA) and methyl methacrylate (MMA) was monitored under different starting composition ratios. Continuous conversion kinetics, composition drift, and average composition distribution are all found from the data, in addition to the evolution of weight-average intrinsic viscosity and molar mass Mw. Reactivity ratios, rmma = 0.40 ± 0.05 and rba = 2.58 ±0.1, are close to the averages found from a literature survey over a wide range of conditions. Comonomer conversion results were independently cross-checked by GPC. Increasing the content of BA in the copolymer was found to increase Mw, while also leading to a significant increase in chain stiffness. This work sets the stage for extension to copolymerization of three and more comonomers.