Redox Solution Polymerization of Vinyl Acetate in Mild Conditions and Gel Permeation Chromatography Analysis

Abstract

Controlling High Molecular Weight (HMW) governs the suitable process for modeling a wide variety of physico-chemical and rheological properties of polyvinyl acetate (PVAc). To overcome the defects of different polymerization techniques (radical polymerization, reversible termination mechanism, photo-polymerization, reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer), Amine Peroxide Redox Initiation  (APRI) process was launched, involving  a   bulk organic redox initiator Benzoyl peroxide/Phenyldiethanolamine  (Bz2O2 /PhDEA), and methanol as alcoholic solvent, called upon to promote the best performance in highlighting PVAc molecular weight, in mild conditions , at 30°C. PVAc was identified by ATR-FTIR spectroscopy.  GPC quantitation was the main tool implemented to identify Molecular Weight Distribution (MWD) of PVAc, in addition to illustration of fractionated PVAc species by Statistica software .Viscometric average weight of PVAc were assessed according to Mark-Houwink Sakurada (MHS) equation from experimental data, results broadly reviewed and confirmed by GPC quantitation.