Síntesis y caracterización de microesferas poliméricas : Efecto del tipo y cantidad de iniciador en la obtención de microesferas de poliestireno por polimerización.

Abstract

Polystyrene is one of the main polymers used in the industry, so its synthesis is of high importance, there are multiple ways of obtaining where suspension polymerization is the easiest and cheapest to perform. The present curricular integration work aimed to determine the initiator effect on system performance, morphology, size and size distribution of polystyrene microspheres by suspended polymerization. With the determined reaction conditions, initiator concentration analysis was performed for Benzoyl Peroxide (PB) and Azobisisobutyrionitrile (AIBN). It was determined that the reaction performance is directly proportional to the initiator concentration and the AIBN had higher yield than PB because the reaction temperature was approximately 80°C and the thermal decomposition of the AIBN is close to that temperature. The granulometric analysis determined that the mesh with the highest microsphere retention was 600μm. Uniformity in the dispersion of microsphere sizes was increased for a higher initiator concentration by the Trommsdorff effect and the high level of nucleation at the start of the reaction. The polystyrene obtained is shaped like spheres, its only variation is the presence of pores, which occurs with the increase in initiator concentration.