Emulsion polymerization of methyl methacrylate under pulsed microwave irradiation

Emulsion polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) under pulsed microwave irradiation (PMI) with higher peak pulse power was studied. The effects of various parameters of PMI on the polymerization were analyzed and compared with that under conventional heating (CH) process. The results were summarized, as compared with that under CH, as follows. The amount of initiator used to reach constant conversion reduced by 50% at the same polymerization time; at the same initiator concentration 0.15 and 0.2 wt.%, the polymerization rate increased by 131% and 163%, respectively. The molecular weight of polymer obtained was 1.1–2.0 times larger than that under CH; at the same irradiation energy, the conversion achieved using a lower pulse power was greater than that using a higher pulse power. There seemed to be a factor of the irradiation energy efficiency; in other words, for the monomer conversion, the irradiation energy of low pulse power had a higher efficiency. The conversion achieved using a 3.5 μs pulse width was almost the same as that using a 1.5 μs pulse width. The results indicated that PMI had a significant non-thermal effect on the emulsion polymerization of MMA so as to effectively enhance the polymerization rate. The glass transition temperature (Tg), the polydispersity index (PDI) and the regularity of the polymer obtained using two processes were similar, indicating that the physical properties and microstructure of the polymer were not modified by the use of microwaves.