Method of preparation of a composition comprising a copolymer of methyl methacrylate and methacrylic acid

1. A process of preparation of a polymeric composition suitable for making molded objects, said composition comprising a (meth)acrylic copolymer comprising monomers of methyl methacrylate and methacrylic acid, said process comprises the steps of

a) adding a monomer mixture consisting essentially of between 85 wt % and 99 wt % of methyl methacrylate and between 1 wt % and 15 wt % of methacrylic acid to a reaction vessel after cooling said monomer mixture to a temperature between −47° C. and −20° C. before the adding to the reaction vessel;

b) adding an initiator;

c) adding a chain transfer agent;

d) polymerizing the monomer mixture in the absence of any voluntary added solvent or dispersant; and

recovering a composition from the reaction vessel comprising between 45 wt % and 70 wt % of the (meth)acrylic copolymer, wherein the composition recovered comprises between 30 wt % and 50 wt % of unreacted monomer from the monomer mixture added and other residues coming from initiator and chain transfer agent,

while keeping the temperature inside the reaction vessel at a temperature between 125° C. and 175° C. wherein the difference between the temperature inside the reaction vessel and the temperature of monomer mixture that is added to the reaction vessel is at least 145K.

2. The process according to claim 1 , wherein said polymerization step is a continuous bulk polymerization.

3. The process according to claim 1 , comprising additionally at least one of the following steps

devolatilization of the composition recovered in step e);

recycling of at least of a part of the non-reacted monomer(s).

4. The process according to claim 1 wherein the monomer mixture consisting essentially of between 85 wt % and 99 wt % of methyl methacrylate and between 1 wt % and 15 wt % of methacrylic acid is cooled to a temperature of from −47° C. to −25° C. before the adding of the monomer mixture to the reaction vessel.

5. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the monomer mixture consisting essentially of between 85 wt % and 99 wt % of methyl methacrylate and between 1 wt % and 15 wt % of methacrylic acid is cooled to a temperature between −44° C. and −35° C., before the adding of the monomer mixture to the reaction vessel, in step a) of the process.

6. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the monomer mixture consisting essentially of between 85 wt % and 99 wt % of methyl methacrylate and between 1 wt % and 15 wt % of methacrylic acid is cooled to a temperature between −45° C. and −30° C. before the adding of the monomer mixture to the reaction vessel, in step a) of the process.

7. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the difference between the temperature inside the reaction vessel and the temperature of the monomer mixture consisting essentially of between 85 wt % and 99 wt % of methyl methacrylate and 1 wt % and 15 wt % of methacrylic acid that is added to the reaction vessel is at least 155K.

8. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the reaction vessel is a continuous stirred tank reactor.

9. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the composition recovered from the reaction vessel comprises between 50 wt % and 70 wt % of the (meth)acrylic copolymer.

10. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the monomer mixture comprises at least 90 wt % of methyl methacrylate.

11. The process according to claim 1 wherein (meth)acrylic copolymer recovered comprises at least 85 wt % of methyl methacrylate.

12. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the monomer mixture added consists essentially of between 90 wt % and 98 wt % of methyl methacrylate and 2 wt % and 10 wt % of methacrylic acid.

13. The process of preparation of a polymeric composition according to claim 1 , wherein the (meth)acrylic copolymer recovered comprises at least 90 wt % of methyl methacrylate.

14. The process of preparation of a polymeric composition according to claim 1 wherein the (meth)acrylic copolymer consists of between 90 wt % to 98 wt % of methyl methacrylate and 2 wt % to 10 wt % of monomer units based on the introduction of methacrylic acid with the monomer mixture.

15. The process according to claim 3 , wherein at least 10 wt % of the non-reacted monomer(s) is/are recycled by either conducting the non-reacted monomer into the monomer distillation or into the reaction vessel.