Designing tubular reactors to avoid clogging in high solids miniemulsion photopolymerization

Tubular reactors are attractive for the synthesis of complex waterborne dispersed polymers by photoinitiated miniemulsion polymerization. However, tubular reactors are not yet used in commercial production of emulsion polymers mainly because they are prone to suffer clogging. In this work, the reasons for the occurrence of tubular reactor clogging in high solids miniemulsion photopolymerization are unveiled, a facile test to predict if a given miniemulsion will lead to clogging in the tubular reactor is proposed, and a reactor design to overcome clogging is presented.

► High solids miniemulsion photopolymerization in a continuous tubular reactor.
► Reasons for occurrence of reactor clogging are unveiled.
► Facile test to predict which miniemulsions lead to tubular reactor clogging proposed.
► Reactor design to overcome clogging is presented.