Sustainable Polymerizations in Recoverable Microemulsions

Abstract

Free radical and atom-transfer radical polymerizations were conducted in monomer/ionic liquid microemulsions. After the polymerization and isolation of the resultant polymers, the mixture of the catalyst and ionic liquids (surfactant and continuous phase) can be recovered and reused, thereby dramatically improving the environmental sustainability of such chemical processing. The addition of monomer to recovered ionic liquid mixtures regenerates transparent, stable microemulsions that are ready for the next polymerization cycle upon addition of initiator. The method combines the advantages of IL recycling and microemulsion polymerization and minimizes environmental disposable effects from surfactants and heavy metal ions.

Ionic Liquids as Advantageous Reaction Media for Free Radical Polymerization

“…Ionic liquids have been investigated in radical polymerization since several years as summarized and discussed in several reviews . Compared to the use of traditional solvents, rates of polymerization are mostly higher in ionic liquids, and molecular weights are often increased .…”

Assembling Metal–Organic Frameworks in Ionic Liquids and Supercritical CO2

“…IL-based emulsions or microemulsions,i nw hichI La cts as ad ispersed or ac ontinuous phase, have drawn considerable attentioni nr ecent years. [69] Owingt ot he unusual properties of ILs, IL-based emulsions or microemulsionsh ave been widely appliedi nc hemical reactions, [70,71] materials synthesis, [72] polymerization, [73][74][75] drug release, [76,77] and so forth. Zhang and coworkers showed the first example of the formation of an IL-in-IL nanoemulsion and studied MOF synthesis in this novel kind of nanoemulsion.…”

Liquid Perfluorochemicals as Flexible and Efficient Gas Carriers Applied in Bioprocess Engineering: An Updated Overview and Future Prospects

“…The form of liquid PFC-based emulsions depends on the way of its bioengineering application. Two main lines of research are being actively pursued: (i) PFC-inwater emulsions for in vivo intravascular oxygen delivery (known as perfluorinated temporary blood substitutes) (Krafft et al, 2003;Riess, 2006b;Vasquez et al, 2013), as storage-media during organ transplantation procedures (Bezinover et al, 2014;Maillard et al, 2008;Terai et al, 2010), currently under development for treatment of traumatic brain and spinal cord injury (Spiess, 2009) as well as in decompression sickness therapy (Randsoe and Hyldegaard, 2009), and (ii) water-in-PFC reverse emulsions for pulmonary drug delivery (Courrier et al, 2004;Smoła et al, 2008), targeted emulsions for diagnosis and therapy (Kaufmann and Lindner, 2007;Lanza and Wickline, 2001;Martin and Dayton, 2013), as well as valuable research tool used in polymerisation technology (Chen et al, 2010;Zetterlund et al, 2008).…”