Inverse phase suspension polymerization of acrylamide in a batch oscillatory raffled reactor

We report, for the first time, our experimental investigation of inverse ph ase suspension polymerization of acrylamide in a batch oscillatory baffled reactor. In such a reactor, the oscillatory motion is achieved by moving a set of orifice baffles up and down the column at the top of the reactor. Th e effects of both operational and design parameters on the mean particle si ze and size distribution of polymer beads were investigated, including osci llation amplitude, escalation frequency, baffle spacing, baffle free area, and monomer addition time. The experimental results indicated that the mean particle size and size distribution of the polymer beads depended predomin antly on the product of oscillation frequency and amplitude, i.e., the osci llation velocity. The size distributions are narrow and of essentially a Ga ussian distribution. The level of fines produced is consistently less than 1% for all 100 experiments performed. We demonstrated that the mean particl e size and size distribution in an oscillatory baffled reactor can be contr olled precisely by simply selecting the appropriate oscillation velocity. T he effect of the baffle spacing on the mean particle size is much less comp ared wi th that of the baffle free area. The monomer injection time has a n oticeable influence on the mean particle size, but the rate of change is re latively small. (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.