Investigation of Room Temperature Ionic Liquids as Environmentally Benign Solvents for Free Radical Polymerization

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ABSTRACTPI: Jimmy W. Mays Institution: University of Alabama at BirminghamProposal Number: 0086874Room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) are emerging as replacements for environmentally dangerous volatile organic compound solvents (VOCs) traditionally used as industrial solvents. RTILs offer a solvating medium in which a number of organic and inorganic compounds can be dissolved. They are non-volatile, non-flammable, have high thermal stabilities, and are inexpensively and easily manufactured. The polymer industry is a major segment of the chemical industry and VOCs are used as solvents in polymerization as well as polymer isolation and purification processes. This industry could benefit by replacing VOCs with RTILs in polymer production.This project will be a study of the feasibility of conduction free radical addition polymerizations in RTILs. It will be a collaborative study between a polymer chemist, an inorganic chemist and a chemical/polymer engineer. The group, also working with industrial collaborators, will evaluate a number of different RTILs and different vinyl and acrylic monomers. Special emphasis will be placed on developing processes that completely avoid the use of VOCs throughout the polymer synthesis and isolation process. In addition to conventional free radical polymerization, living free radical polymerization in RTILs will also be studied. These living polymerization processes offer the potential to produce tailored polymer and copolymer architectures and limit polydispersity, while avoiding the high cost associated with ionic polymerization processes. Fundamental engineering and toxicity date will also be generated for the RTILs used.