Poly Acrylic Acid (PAA)

[kgcarini]

Hello,
I'm using acrylic acid and a thermal initiator to polymerize it. What should the curing time and the curing temperature be for Poly Acrylic Acid? Thanks!

 

[patprimmer]

Is it exothermic, if so the curing time and temp and even possible cooling will depend very much on section thickness. You need enough to get it all going but not so much that the exotherm takes over and boils the monomer or even starts a fire.

The normal procedure is to follow the raw materials manufacturers recommendations then experiment with small samples to start with to get a feel for it.

Regards
Pat
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[Demon3]

I have a feeling Pat may be talking PMMA, forgiveness begged if wrong.

Polyacrylic acid, at least when I worked with it was polymerized from solution in water with a water soluble initiator.

Although now, rereading the post, the word "cure" does sound like bulk rather than solution polymerization.

It's impossible to answer the question because each thermal initiator has it's own decomposition half-time and we don't know which initiator or how much.

A wild guess would be 65C for 2 hours but Pat's right, ask the supplier.

Chris DeArmitt PhD FRSC CChem

 

[patprimmer]

Sorry Chris. I misread and only saw acrylic. I was talking PMMA.

Regards
Pat
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[Demon3]

That's what I read first time as well!

Chris DeArmitt PhD FRSC CChem