Emulsion polymerization of nitriles and other compounds
The present disclosure relates to a method that includes polymerizing a nitrile with an acrylate ester to form a copolymer, in a mixture that includes water and an alcohol (R 2 —OH), according to the following reaction where R 1 includes at least one of a first aliphatic group or hydrogen, R 2 comprises at least one of a second aliphatic group or hydrogen, 100≤m≤4000, and 1≤n≤4000. In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the mixture may be an emulsion.
1. A method comprising:
reacting a monomer having the structure
with ammonia to form a mixture comprising acrylonitrile, an alcohol, and water; and
polymerizing the acrylonitrile with at least a portion of the monomer remaining in the mixture to form a copolymer having the structure
wherein:
R 1 comprises at least one of a first aliphatic group or hydrogen,
100≤m≤4000, and
1≤n≤4000.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the mixture is an emulsion.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the copolymer comprises
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the copolymer contains randomly dispersed repeat units derived from the acrylonitrile and randomly dispersed repeat units derived from the monomer.
5. The method of claim 3 , wherein the copolymer has a molecular weight between about 5.4 kDa and about 600 kDa.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the mixture further comprises a surfactant.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the mixture further comprises a chain transfer agent (CTA).
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the copolymer has a peak temperature between about 200° C. and about 400° C., as determined by differential scanning calorimetry.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the polymerizing is performed at a temperature between about 25° C. and about 100° C.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the copolymer has an end group comprising at least one of an alkyl group or an alkoxy group.
11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising converting the copolymer to a carbon fiber.
12. The method of claim 3 , wherein the copolymer comprises a molar ratio of a repeat unit derived from the acrylonitrile (AN) to a repeat unit derived from the monomer (M) between about 96:4 and about 97:3.