6533b853fe1ef96bd12ac24c

RESEARCH PRODUCT

γ-radiation-initiated polymerization of vinylidene fluoride in dense carbon dioxide

Giuseppe FilardoAnd Giuseppe SpadaroGiuseppe CaputoAlessandro Galia

subject

chemistry.chemical_classificationReaction mechanismMolar concentrationGeneral Chemical EngineeringKineticsSolution polymerizationGeneral ChemistryPolymerSettore ING-IND/27 - Chimica Industriale E TecnologicaIndustrial and Manufacturing Engineeringchemistry.chemical_compoundMonomerchemistryPolymerizationsupercritical carbon dioxide free radical polymerization fluoropolymersPolymer chemistryFluorideNuclear chemistry

description

The γ-ray-initiated batch polymerization of vinylidene fluoride (VF2) has been investigated in dense carbon dioxide under relatively mild operative conditions (T ≤ 40 °C and P < 25 MPa). When the initial VF2 molar concentration was increased from 3.4 to 6.4 mol/L, monomer conversion increased from 20 to 73%; a similar trend was observed for the number-average molecular weight and the molecular complexity of synthesized poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) as determined from rheological measurements. Under all adopted experimental conditions, a synthesized PVDF polymer was collected in the form of a white powder. Despite the inherent heterogeneous character of the polymerization process, a homogeneous free-radical chain kinetics model can be used to fit kinetic data collected at 30 °C and 3.4 mol/L VF2 loading, with evidence of heterogeneous-phase polymerization being constituted by the onset of an acceleration period.

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