Nowadays, the polymeric industry should become more environment friendly as any other important industry. In particular, ethylammonium acrylate, a deep eutectic solvent (DES) formed by an ammonium salt and a carboxylic acid share many green properties with ionic liquids and can be used to polymerize acrylic acid by frontal polymerization.<br/>In conventional solvents, frontal polymerization of acrylic acid is highly exothermic, producing vapors and burning the already formed polymer. These undesirable phenomena can be attenuated and controlled carry on this polymerization using ethylammonium acrylate as a solvent, where a polymerization front at 100°C has been achieved in contrast to 200°C in conventional medium.<br/>A spatially and thermally controlled front is highly desirable from a technological point of view because it allowed a molecular weight distribution narrower and a homogeneous polymer network can be obtained.<br/>It is evident that a chemical reaction is only possible if all the chemicals involved are available in the same environment. When an ionic liquid is attempted to use as a reactive media, the non-polar/polar structures that form the liquid can be chosen to dissolve polar and non-polar molecules or to segregate water or oil phases.<br/>To study the distribution of the components in the frontal polymerization of acrylic acid in a Deep eutectic solvent two different systems were proved. A simply mixture between the DES and the initiator (Luperox 231) and; an microemulsion of SDS in water; with Luperox inside the micelles. The fronts were followed using an infrared sensor, the properties of the polymers obtained were monitored by viscometer and was chemically characterized by infrared spectroscopy.

Polymerization fronts in deep eutectic solvents

255th National Meeting (2018)

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