Induced Inverse-Microemulsion Polymerization

丙烯酸水溶性聚合物可用于造纸（保留细粒）、采油（推动流体）、个人卫生（吸收性水凝胶）以及水处理（絮凝）等环保应用等行业。水基聚合物在控制药物输送、免疫隔离、生物人工器官（封装）以及轻质太阳能电池组件方面也有新兴的应用。在这些应用中，聚合物的实用性来自于它的亲水性、电荷密度和分子量。PI感兴趣的是开发一种新的工艺，使合成高分子量丙烯酸水溶性聚合物：诱导反微乳液聚合。这使得在较低的乳化剂水平（低至总配方的2 wt%）下形成热力学稳定的反微乳液成为可能。这些反微乳液是由单体反大乳液转化而来的，利用了反应的固有特征，比如它的前热性。该工艺结合了反微乳液产品的一些优点，如稳定性和易于对聚合物主链进行化学改性，同时避免了主要缺点：经济。较低的乳化剂水平允许该工艺与反大型乳化剂竞争。pi计划进行一系列的合成和表征研究，以调查和了解诱导反微乳液聚合并评估其潜力。他们计划开发机械模型，这将有助于最大限度地提高所生产的聚合物的线性分子量。该项目还涉及光和中子散射和双折射的战略基础研究。超过50%的成本由美国工业界分担，并且与PI现有的环保设计和生命周期分析项目非常吻合，这些项目的重点是评估水溶性聚合物生产现有工艺的无溶剂替代品。

Acrylic water soluble polymers are utilized in industries such as paper making (fines retention), oil recovery (pushing fluids), personal hygiene (absorbent hydrogels) as well as in environmentally friendly applications such as water treatment (flocculation). Water based polymers also have emerging applications in controlled drug delivery, immunoisolation, bioartificial organs (encapsulation) as well as components of light weight solar cells. In these applications, the polymer gains its utility from its hydrophilicity, charge density, and molecular weight. The PI is interested in developing a new process which enables the synthesis of high molecular weight acrylic water soluble polymers: Induced Inverse-Microemulsion Polymerization. This enables the formation of a thermodynamically stable inverse-microemulsion at lower emulsifier levels than have ever been used before (as low as 2 wt% of the total recipe). These inverse-microemulsions are transformed from monomeric inverse-macroemulsions by taking advantage of the inherent features of the reaction, such as its ex othermicity. The process combines some of the advantages of an inverse-microemulsion product, such as its stability and ease of chemical modification of the polymeric backbone, while avoiding the principal disadvantage: economics. The lower emulsifier level permits the process to compete with inverse-macroemulsions. The PIs plan a series of synthesis and characterization studies to investigate and understand induced inverse-microemulsion polymerization and to evaluate its potential. They plan to develop mechanistic models which will help maximize the linear molecular weight of the polymer produced. The project also involves strategic basic research in light and neutron scattering and birefringence. It is cost shared by more than 50% from US industry and also fits in well with the PI's existing projects on environmentally conscious design and life cycle analysis which are focused on evaluating solvent-free alternatives to existing processes for the production of water soluble polymers.