Preparation of Green High Impact Polystyrene Beads via Suspension Polymerization

Abstract

The aim of this research was to investigate the important effects and their interaction on production of Green High Impact Polystyrene (HIPS) synthesized by using natural rubber (NR) as elastomeric phase via suspension polymerization initiated and stabilized by using benzoyl peroxide (BPO) and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), respectively. The effects of reaction parameters: wt ratio of NR/styrene and PVA/NR including agitation rate on HIPS bead size were studied by using 2 k factorial design experiment. The HIPS bead size increased with increasing the NR content (0.01-0.08 w/w of NR/ST) in the mixture of NR/styrene syrup. Whereas, the increase in the PVA content (1.5-2.5 w/w of PVA/NR) and agitation rate (350-450 rpm) decreased HIPS bead size. Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) results were showed that HIPS containing the various amounts of NR had more thermal stability than the neat PS. Moreover, the glass transition temperature (T g ) of PS phase in the obtained HIPS bead was shifted from 97.9 to 84.2 C when the wt ratio of NR/ST was increased to 0.08.