Production of Widely Different Dispersed Polymers in a Continuous Taylor–Couette Reactor

The suitability of a continuous Taylor–Couette reactor to produce widely different dispersed polymers was investigated. It was found that it is possible to synthesize high solids acrylic pressure sensitive adhesives prepared by conventional emulsion polymerization, with higher conversion and narrower particle size distribution than the one produced with a CSTR. Coagulum free acrylic–alkyd and acrylic–clay hybrid latexes synthesized by miniemulsion polymerization, with final particle size similar to the initial droplet size, were also obtained. The suitability of this reactor to synthesize flocculants obtained by inverse microemulsion polymerization was also demonstrated. magnified image