559e Carbon Black Acts as Catalyst in Making Amphiphilic Ipns Based on Pulverized Rubber Particles

Ruohua Xiong, Fouad Teymour, and Hamid Arastoopour. Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL 60616

Synthesis and characterization of amphiphilic particulate phase interpenetrating polymer networks(PPIPNs) based on pulverized rubber particles are investigated in this work. A hydrophilic character is added to hydrophobic pulverized rubber particles when carbon black acts as catalyst. Experiment shows that carbon black can induce the decomposition of initiator benzyl peroxide(BPO) at a lower temperature such as 55°C.. Kinetic data from free radical polymerization of different hydrophilic vinyl monomer such as acrylic acid(AA), vinyl acetate(VA), 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate(HEMA), hydroxyethyl acrylate(HEA), N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidinone(NVPD) are compared and discussed. The produced IPNs particles in this study are characterized by TGA, DSC, SEM. The swelling property of the IPNs particles are also studies with different crosslink density of hydrophilic polymers.