Introduction
Dispersed polymers are truly “product by process” materials and major advances can be achieved in this area by combining sound Polymer Science and imaginative process strategies. This idea has inspired the research program of the Polymerization Processes Group (PPG) of POLYMAT. For a number of years we have developed a fundamental investigation of industrially relevant topics. Kinetic studies of high solids multimonomer emulsion polymerizations (mostly neglected by academics); the first, and still only, mathematical model for the development of non-equilibrium polymer particle morphology; innovative strategies for the control of copolymer composition and MWD using reaction calorimetry (easily implementable in large scale reactors); new insights in the mechanisms controlling the microstructure of acrylic polymers and control of the morphology and microstructure of polymer-polymer and clay-polymer hybrids are some examples of our activity.
These developments would not have been possible without close collaboration with a number of latex producers. The objective of the Industrial Liaison Program in “Polymerization in Dispersed Media” is to further strength the research in order to help our partners to achieve a better product performance through process engineering.
Member companies take an active role by influencing the research program through their representative in the Scientific Board. We look for a highly interactive environment in steering the program of the consortium. Details on the benefits to the participating companies are given below.