Adiabatic gel polymerization process for the production of water-soluble polyelectrolytes

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10647823-B2
Application number	US-201815981840-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 16, 2018
Priority date	May 16, 2018
Publication date	May 12, 2020
Grant date	May 12, 2020

Abstract

The current process relates to an adiabatic gel polymerization process for the production of water-soluble polyelectrolytes using UV LED modules or a combination of a UV tube light sources and UV LED modules wherein the resulting polymer has increased throughput, lower residual monomer content as well as lower insolubles compared with current photoinitiated polymerization processes.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An adiabatic gel polymerization process for the production of water-soluble polyelectrolytes comprising:
providing a monomer solution comprising an aqueous acrylamide, an ethylenically unsaturated monomer, and a photoinitiator;
purging the monomer solution to remove oxygen and adjusting the pH to about 3-7 and a temperature below 25° C.;
initiating photopolymerization utilizing a UV light source having a wavelength of from about 365 nanometer (nm) to about 395 nm and an intensity of from about 0.1 mW/cm 2 to about 2.5 mW/cm 2 until the temperature reaches from about 40° C. to about 80° C.;
increasing the intensity of the UV light source to from about 5 mW/cm 2 @365±10 nm to about 50 mW/cm 2 @365±10 nm until reaching the maximum reaction temperature of from about 60° C. to about 150° C.; producing a gelatinous polymer;
drying the gelatinous polymer and comminuting the dried product to a desired particle size.

2. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the gelatinous polymer is cut prior to drying.

3. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the adiabatic gel polymerization process is a continuous process.

4. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the monomer solution is purged at a temperature below 10 degrees Celsius.

5. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the monomer solution is purged at a temperature below minus 5 degrees Celsius.

6. The process according to claim 1 , wherein photopolymerization is initiated utilizing a UV light source having an intensity of from about 0.2 mW/cm 2 to about 2.0 mW/cm 2 .

7. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the intensity of the UV light source is increased when the reaction temperature reaches from about 50° C. to about 60° C.

8. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the intensity of the UV light source is increased to from about 10 mW/cm 2 @365±10 nm to about 50 mW/cm 2 @365±10 nm.

9. The process according to claim 8 , wherein the intensity of the UV light source is increased to from about 15 mW/cm 2 @365±10 nm to about 30 mW/cm 2 @365±10 nm.

10. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the reaction is continued until a reaction temperature of from about 80° C. to 120° C.

11. The process according to claims 1 , wherein the initial UV light source is a tube light source or an LED light source.

12. The process according to claims 1 , wherein the UV light source is a combination of tube and LED light sources.

13. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the gelatinous polymer gel is dried at a temperature of from about from about 70° C. to 150° C.

14. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the gelatinous polymer gel is dried over a temperature profile of about 110° C. to about 120° C. for about 10 minutes, followed by a temperature of about 95° C. to about 105° C. for about 40 minutes followed by a temperature of about 85° C. to about 95° C. for about 30 minutes.

15. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the product is ground to a particle-size fraction of from about 100 micron to about 1400 micron.

16. The process according to claim 15 , wherein the particles size fraction is from about 200 micron to about 1,200 micron.

17. The process according to claim 16 , wherein the particles size fraction is from about 500 micron to about 800 micron.

18. The process according to claim 1 , wherein when the temperature of the reaction reaches from about 40° C. to about 80° C., the intensity of the initial UV light source is increased at least about 10 -fold higher.

19. The process according to claim 18 , wherein when the temperature of the reaction reaches from about 40° C. to about 80° C., the intensity of the initial UV light source is increased by at least about 30-fold.

20. The process according to claim 19 , wherein when the temperature of the reaction reaches from about 40° C. to about 80° C., the intensity of the initial UV light source is increased at least about 60-fold higher.

Assignees

• Solenis Tech Lp

Inventors

• Bierganns Patric
• Bröcher Markus
• Dollendorf Christian

Classifications

• C08F4/04

  Azo-compounds · CPC title

• C08F2/48 Primary

  by ultraviolet or visible light · CPC title

• C08L2203/20

  use in electrical or conductive gadgets · CPC title

• C08L33/26

  Homopolymers or copolymers of acrylamide or methacrylamide · CPC title

• C08F2/22

  Emulsion polymerisation · CPC title