Synthesis Of High Oil Absorption Resins Via ARGET ATRP

High oil absorption resins, being different from traditional oil absorbing materials, is a newkind of self-swelling oil absorbing material with many virtues of absorbing large quantity andvariety of oils, only absorbing oil from oil/water mixture and high capacity, and has apromising future. Synthesis and applications of high oil absorption resins have very importantpiratical significance for environment protection. Atom transfer radical polymerization is anew polymerization process to prepare a wide range of materials with a definite structure anda composition having a predetermined molecular weight and narrow PDI. In this article,PS-g-poly（BMA-co-MMA） and SG-g-poly（BMA-co-MMA） were prepared by activatorsregenerated by electron transfer for atom transfer radical polymerization （ARGET ATRP）, andthe structure and properties of well-defined polymers were determined by Fourier transforminfrared spectroscopy （FT-IR）.Firstly, well-defined PS-g-poly（BMA-co-MMA） was synthesized using ARGET ATRP,which was initiated by polystyrene resin-supported N-chlorosulfonamide groups, with butylmethacrylate （BMA） and methyl methacrylate （MMA） as the comonomers, PETEA asacrosslinking agent, VC as reduce agent. The kinetic plot demonstrated the features of“living”/controlled free-radical polymerization. The effects of the concentrations of initiator,crosslinking agent, reduce agent, catalyst on the oil absorbency were detailedly discussed. Itwas found that the maximum oil absorbency of the resins was21g/g for toluene. Theoptimum polymerization conditions were obtained as follows:[BMA/MMA]₀:[PS-Cl]₀:[CuBr2]₀:[IDA]₀:[VC]₀:[PETEA]₀=200:0.6:0.1:1.0:0.3:4, T=80℃, t=24h.A novel method of surface modification was developed via iron （III）-mediated atomtransfer radical polymerization, with activators regenerated by electron transfer （ARGETATRP） on the surfaces of chloro-modified silica-gel. The kinetic plot demonstrated thefeatures of “living”/controlled free-radical polymerization. The effects of the concentrationsof initiator, crosslinking agent, reduce agent, catalyst on the oil absorbency were detailedlydiscussed. It was found that the maximum oil absorbency of the resins was23g/g for toluene.The optimum polymerization conditions were obtained as follows:[BMA/MMA]₀:[SG-Cl]₀:[FeCl)3]₀:[IDA]₀:[VC]₀:[PETEA]₀=200:1:0.05:0.3:0.05:4, T=80℃, t=20h. The thermalanalysis showed that the high oil absorption resin had good heat-resistant quality. Compared with the PS-g-poly （BMA-co-MMA） and SG-g-poly （BMA-co-MMA）,SG-g-poly （BMA-co-MMA） had the higher oil absorbency, faster oil absorbing rate, betteroil-retention and regeneration property. The isotherms indicated that the Freundlich modelwas much better to describe the isothermal process of PS-g-poly （BMA-co-MMA） andSG-g-poly （BMA-co-MMA） for toluene. The kinetics data indicated that the adsorptionprocess was followed pseudo-first-order model.