THE ROLE OF PARTICLE SIZE IN THE SURFACTANT-FREE EMULSION POLYMERIZATION OF STYRENE

摘要

In previous work the relative rate of growth of particles of different sizes have bee inferred from measurement of variation in particle size distribution during the polymerization process. These measurement are consistent with theoretical models based on the Smith- Ewart model of polymerization taking into account the stochastic nature of the growth process. A much more sensitive test of the theory is the polymerization of a bimodal sample where the particles differ greatly in size. This work is a study of the surfactant-free emulsion polymerization of styrene in the presence of mixed seed made up of particles with mean diameters of 86 nm and 236 nm.