Miniemulsions Using Static Mixers: A Feasibility Study Using Simple In-Line Static Mixers

摘要

The feasibility Of using simple static mixers (SM) to produce polymerisable miniemulsion dispersions, and the influence of the emulsification conditions on the diameter of the resulting methylmethacrylate droplets were examined. It was shown that these simple mixers could be used to generate droplets with diameters on the order of 150-300 nm, and that these droplets could be successfully polymerised. As expected, increasing the flow rate through the mixers led to a decrease in the average droplet size. Doubling the number of mixers in series did not have a significant influence on the droplet size but did decrease the time needed to achieve a steady final value of the average diameter. On the contrary, changing the surfactant concentration had an observable effect on the droplet sizes obtained, with higher surfactant concentrations yielding smaller droplets.