Flow reactor synthesis of polymers

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10118992-B2
Application number	US-201715662503-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 28, 2017
Priority date	Oct 13, 2015
Publication date	Nov 6, 2018
Grant date	Nov 6, 2018

Abstract

A flow reactor system and methods having tubing useful as polymerization chamber. The flow reactor has at least one inlet and at least one mixing chamber, and an outlet. The method includes providing two phases, an aqueous phase and a non-aqueous phase and forming an emulsion for introduction into the flow reactor.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising
introducing an emulsion of an aqueous solution of monomer and an organic solvent solution of acid into a flow reactor, the flow reactor comprising a length of tubing having an inner diameter;
polymerizing the monomer under a diffusion-limiting condition within the length of tubing; and
forming a salt of the polymerized monomer with the acid within the length of tubing.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising introducing a catalyst to the emulsion.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising introducing a catalyst to the flow reactor.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising maintaining the salt of the polymerized monomer in the length of tubing.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising recovering the salt of the polymerized monomer from the tubing.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising recovering of the salt of the polymerized monomer from the tubing with organic solvent.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising maintaining the polymerized acid salt in the length of tubing and removing unreacted monomer or the acid from the tubing with water.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the length of tubing is coiled.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the tubing is a fluoropolymer.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the flow reactor comprises a plurality of tubing arranged in a parallel flow configuration.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the monomer is an aniline or a thiophene.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the acid is an organic acid selected from polystyrene sulfonate or dinonylnaphthalene sulfonic acid.

13. A method comprising;
introducing an emulsion of an aqueous solution of aniline and an organic solvent solution of organic acid into a flow reactor, the flow reactor comprising a length of tubing having an inner diameter;
introducing an oxidant to the emulsion or the flow reactor; and
polymerizing the aniline in a diffusion-limiting condition in the inner diameter of the length of tubing and forming an acid salt thereof.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the molar ratio of aniline to that of the organic acid in the polymerized aniline acid salt is about 1:1 to about 0.2:1.

15. A method comprising
introducing an emulsion of an aqueous solution of a monomer and an organic solvent solution of acid into a flow reactor, the flow reactor comprising a length of tubing, the length of tubing having:
an inner diameter; and
a surface for receiving polymerized monomer upon polymerizing;
introducing a catalyst to the emulsion;
polymerizing the monomer under diffusion-limiting conditions within the inner diameter;
depositing at least a portion of the polymerized monomer on the surface within the length of tubing; and
forming a salt of the polymerized monomer with the acid.

Assignees

• Boeing Co

Inventors

• Kinlen Patrick John
• Zweig Andrew M

Classifications

• C08K5/42

  Sulfonic acids; Derivatives thereof · CPC title

• C08G73/0266 Primary

  Polyanilines or derivatives thereof · CPC title

• B01J2219/00891

  Feeding or evacuation · CPC title

• B01J2219/00889

  Mixing · CPC title

• B01J2219/00792

  One or more tube-shaped elements · CPC title