Process for the polymerisation of ethylenically unsaturated compounds

摘要

Ethylenically unsaturated compounds are polymerized in aqueous medium in the presence or absence of a dispersing agent using as catalyst a peroxide of formula where R is an alkyl, aryl, cycloalkyl, aralkyl, alkaryl or heterocyclic radical and M is the equivalent of an alkali metal or alkaline earth metal, or ammonium. Reducing agents such as sodium sulphite, bisulphite, sulphoxylate or chlorite, and compounds of iron, cobalt, copper or silver may also be present. Specified unsaturated compounds are styrene, ethylene, propylene, butylene, butadiene, methyl butadiene, chloroprene, acrylic and methacrylic acids, esters, amides and nitriles, vinyl esters, halogen substituted ethylene, vinyl ketones, acrolein, vinyl heterocyclic compounds, vinylidene cyanide, vinyl phosphonic acid and esters thereof. Specified dispersing agents are alkali metal alkyl sulphates and sulphonates, quaternary ammonium compounds, glycerol esters of long chain carboxylic acids, polyvinyl alcohol, gelatin and methyl cellulose. Buffers, e.g. sodium bicarbonate, may also be present. In Examples (1-3) vinyl chloride, (7) vinyl chloride and difluorovinylidene chloride, (8) styrene, (9) acrylonitrile and 2-ethylhexyl acrylate, (10) vinyl acetate and butyl acrylate, and (11) styrene and acrylonitrile are polymerized in aqueous media containing alkyl sulphonates and alkylnaphthalene sulphonates and a catalyst of the specified formula in which R is cyclohexyl and M is potassium; and vinyl chloride is polymerized similarly in aqueous media containing additionally as activators (4) sodium bisulphite, (5) sodium formaldehyde sulphoxylate and (6) silver nitrate. Specification 1,009,302 is referred to.