Synthetic resins or natural rubbers -- part of the class 520 ser – Synthetic resins – At least one aryl ring which is part of a fused or bridged...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-09
2001-08-14
Lipman, Bernard (Department: 1713)
Synthetic resins or natural rubbers -- part of the class 520 ser
Synthetic resins
At least one aryl ring which is part of a fused or bridged...
C526S208000, C526S213000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06274668
ABSTRACT:
The present invention relates to aqueous dispersions based on acrylic polymers and copolymers. More particularly it refers to aqueous emulsions having a low content of volatile organic compounds and of residual monomers and having low amounts of coagula.
By VOC according to the present invention it is meant the sum of the residual monomers, and besides the volatile organic compounds which are determined by the chromatrographic gas method, as defined hereunder; more precisely the total VOC according to the present invention must be lower than 600 ppm and in particular the monomers, which are substances toxicologically harmful, lower than 100 ppm.
The determination of the content in VOC and in residual monomers is carried out by gaschromatographic analysis. The identification of the residual monomers is carried out by comparison with the starting monomers or by using associated techniques e.g. GC-TR or GC-Mass type.
Wet coagula according to the present invention must be lower or equal to 500 ppm after filtering on 125 &mgr;m filter the final emulsion at the outlet after the various treatment phases, as specified hereunder.
From an industrial point of view the presence of a high content in coagula implies high filtering times especially for high dry and high viscosity emulsions. The filtering process under these conditions is the critical step and leads to high productivity losses.
By acrylic polymers and copolymers according to the present invention are meant homopolymers and copolymers of the (meth)acrylic acid and/or its alkylic esters wherein the alkylic group contains from 1 to 20 carbon atoms. Examples of esters of the acrylic or methacrylic acid are: methylacrylate, ethylacrylate, isopropylacrylate, butyl(meth)acrylate, lauryl- decyl- undecyl- propyl- stearyl-(meth)acrylate, methylmethacrylate, isopropylmethacrylate, sec-butylmethacrylate, ter-butylmethacrylate, 2-ethylhexylacrylate, hydroxyalkyl(meth)acrylate with the alkyl from 2 to 5 carbon atoms, etc.
The acrylic copolymers according to the present invention can moreover contain up to 70% by weight, preferably up to 60% by weight of units derived from other monomer containing double bonds such as styrene, alpha-methylstyrene, vinylacetate, vinylpropionate and the vinylic esters of the versatic acid, acrylonitrile, (meth)acrylamide, n-alkyl or aryl maleimides, etc., or from monomers having double or triple unsaturation such as, for instance, butadiene, ethyleneglycoldi(meth)acrylate, propylenglycoldi(meth)acrylate, trimethylolpropartriacrylate, etc.
The dispersions (emulsions) of acrylic (co)polymers according to the present invention are obtained by polymerization processes in emulsion in aqueous phase. The polymerization in emulsion is usually carried out in the semi-continuous polymerization technique and comprises the following steps: starting step of the polymerization reaction, feeding step of the monomeric phase, pure or preemulsified in water, exhaustion step to reduce the residual monomers.
The starting step comprises the introduction into the reactor, equipped with stirrer and refrigerant, of a part of the charge, formed by monomers, which will form the acrylic polymer or copolymer, optionally preemulsified, water, surfactants, for instance alkyl sulphonates, sulphates, etc., and/or protective colloids, for instance polyvinylic alcohols, hydroxyalkylcellulose, etc.
The preemulsion is obtained in a preemulsifier by treating under stirring the water, the surfactants and the monomers.
The weight ratio water/monomers generally ranges between 0.3-2.
The reactor is heated at the desired temperature, generally comprised from 20° C. to 90° C. and it is added the polymerization initiator, generally a persulphoric acid salt, for instance ammonium persulphate and when the internal temperature increases up to the maximum peak, generally of the order of 1° C-20° C., the remaining part of the preemulsion (feeding step) or of the monomeric not preemulsified mixture is fed and the initiator is continued to be fed.
When the feeding is over, after about some hours, 2-10 hours of feeding at the desired temperature, a thermal stay having the duration of about 15-60 minuts is preferably carried out; then the redox treatment is carried out at the temperature indicated above or at a different temperature, preferably between about 40° and 80° C.
The most known redox couples in the art industrially utilized are formed by organic peroxidic initiators, of hydrooperoxide type, and mixed organic/inorganic reducing agents e.g. sodium formaldehyde sulphoxilate. The reaction completion carried out with these redox couples has the function to reduce the residual monomers. Among the redox couples, sodium formaldehyde sulphoxilate and ter-butyl-hydroperoxide are the most commonly used in industry.
This kind of couple is especially effective in particular for bringing down monomers having poor solubility in water.
According to the present invention by poor solubility in water it is meant a solubility of the monomer in water generally lower than 0.5% by weight.
These treatments allow to reduce the content of residual monomers under 100 ppm but they have the drawback to give VOC values of the order of thousands of ppm, generally 1000-2000 ppm.
The industrial processes, nowadays required, must give the lowest VOC value in order to avoid toxicologic consequences during the application or post application step of dispersions or emulsions. Nowadays industrial processes which do not cause damages from the ecological point of view, are generally requested. It can be mentioned for instance the application in the textile, adhesives, saints and varnishes field, etc. wherein emulsions are submitted to a drying step having the purpose of removing the aqueous dispersing chase and allow the formation of a polymer film.
There was therefore the need to find systems allowing to reduce the content of the total VOC in emulsions based on acrylic (co)polymers and contemporaneously to reduce the residual monomers content to values lower than 100 ppm.
It is also known in the art to carry out, before or alternatively to the redox treatment with organic couples as described above, a preliminary treatment with inorganic persulphates or inorganic redox couples, for instance persulphate/methabissulphite or hydrosulphite. This preliminary treatment has the purpose to considerably reduce the amount of monomers, and in particular it is carried out when the mixture of the monomers utilized to obtain the emulsion has good solubility in water. The treatment with compounds or redox couples of inorganic type can however result not so effective for the reduction of the monomers scarcely soluble in water, for instance styrene, butyl acrylate, etc.
The drawback of these systems generally consists in that also for short times treatments of 3 hours, the concentration of electrolytes in the emulsion increases with the risk of coagula formation, especially in case of not much protected systems, that is in systems wherein the amount of surfactants and/or protective colloids is low.
The coagula are generally higher than 500 ppm, determined as indicated above, and are of the order of 700-1000 ppm.
In this way some application characteristics of the product can be negatively influenced. Moreover it has been experimentally proved by the Applicant that these systems increase the acid group concentration on the polymer particles, sometimes causing drop in pH which can start undesired crosslinking reactions. From an industrial point of view, therefore, this treatment must be used with great caution and for short times.
Also stripping methods for removing the residual monomers and for reducing the total VOC are known in the art. The drawback of this method consists in that it can prejudice the stability of dispersions not much protected, as defined above. This is valid in particular for emulsions of polymers having high temperature glass transition (Tg), for instance higher than 10° C. The drawback of these processes is that the emulsion destabilization can cause the formation of coagula and crus
Becchi Daniele
Montessoro Ezio
Saija Leo Mario
Sempio Carlo
ELF Atochem Italia S.r.l.
Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner L.L.P.
Lipman Bernard
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