Highly effective organometallic‐mediated radical polymerization of vinyl acetate using alumina‐supported Co(acac)2 catalyst: A case study of adsorption and polymerization

• Published in: Journal of applied polymer science Vol. 135; no. 13
• Main Authors: Semsarzadeh, Mohammad Ali, Sabzevari, Alireza
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 05.04.2018
• Subjects: Adsorption; Aluminum oxide; Catalysis; Catalysts; Cobalt; Materials science; Molecular weight; Molecular weight distribution; Polymerization; Polymers; radical polymerization; separation techniques; synthesis and processing techniques; Termination (polymerization); Vinyl acetate
• ISSN: 0021-8995; 1097-4628
• DOI: 10.1002/app.46057

ABSTRACT An alumina support system for cobalt(II) acetylacetonate (Co(acac)2) catalyst was studied for the cobalt‐mediated radical polymerization (CMRP) of vinyl acetate (VAc). We report a simple but efficient technique to produce this supported catalysts through the adsorption of Co(acac)2 on the surface of alumina particles. Moreover, kinetic and thermodynamic study of Co(acac)2 adsorption on the alumina support were conducted and the influence of effective parameters were investigated. It was found that using alumina‐supported Co(acac)2 for radical polymerization of VAc yields polymers with controlled molecular weight, narrow molecular weight distribution, and high purity. For the alumina‐supported CMRP, changing the polymerization mechanism and domination of termination pathway compared to degenerate transfer pathway resulted in a 2.5 times increase in polymerization rate (kap) and a drop in induction time while maintaining a good control of the VAc polymerization. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018, 135, 46057.