Effects of agitation in emulsion polymerization of vinyl acetate, ethylene, and N-methylol acrylamide

The emulsion polymerization of vinyl acetate monomer (VAM), ethylene and N-methylol acrylamide (NMA) was carried out in a high pressure stirred reactor using an Rushton flat blade impeller at a rotational speed of 300 rpm under a semi-batch polymerization process, which was subsequently grown by the continuous addition of monomers (VAM, ethylene, and NMA). The particle diameters of the samples withdrawn during polymerization were determined by using capillary hydrodynamic fractionation (CHDF). Also, the number of particles was calculated from the data obtained by CHDF. Coagulum formation was studied. It was found that coagulum formation increased with increasing conversion and auto-accelerated from ca. 20% conversion. The definition of coagulum in this research was presented. The coagulum formation pattern on the impeller was shown. Also, the flow pattern in the reactor under the same geometrical configuration and operating conditions was simulated.