Issue 3, 2008

Biodiesel: a green polymerization solvent

Abstract

In an effort to use clean technologies, fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) produced from canola have been used as a polymerization solvent. Solution polymerizations of four commercially important monomers have been studied using FAME as a solvent. A series of methyl methacrylate (MMA), styrene (Sty), butyl acrylate (BA) and vinyl acetate (VAc) homopolymerizations in FAME were carried out at 60 °C at different solvent concentrations. Chain transfer to solvent rate constants were obtained using the Mayo method. The transfer constants increased in the order: MMA < Sty < BA < VAc. Under the conditions studied, the MMA solution polymerization in FAME was observed to behave as a precipitation polymerization. The estimated chain transfer to solvent rate constants were employed in a polymerization simulator to predict the polymerization rates and average molecular weights.

Graphical abstract: Biodiesel: a green polymerization solvent

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
01 Oct 2007
Accepted
02 Jan 2008
First published
30 Jan 2008

Green Chem., 2008,10, 321-326

Biodiesel: a green polymerization solvent

S. Salehpour and M. A. Dubé, Green Chem., 2008, 10, 321 DOI: 10.1039/B715047D

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