Process for producing radical polymer and microapparatus for chemical reaction

Abstract

An object of the present invention is to provide a method for effectively producing, within a short period of time, a radical polymer having controlled molecular weight distribution or a narrow molecular weight distribution profile, the method including polymerizing a radical-polymerizable monomer. Another object of the invention is to provide a microreactor which can be readily fabricated. The invention attains the objects through provision of a method for producing a radical polymer, which method includes feeding a radical polymerization initiator and a radical-polymerizable monomer into a reaction tube having an inner diameter of 2 mm or less and performing polymerization in the reaction tube in a homogeneous liquid state under flow conditions, and a microreactor having a jacket for allowing a temperature-regulating fluid to pass therethrough and a plurality of round tubes which are arranged in parallel in the jacket, each having an inner diameter of 2 mm or less, wherein reaction temperature in the round tubes can be regulated through flowing of the temperature-regulating fluid in the jacket.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention relates to a manufacturing method and a micro chemical reaction device of a free radical polymer. In more detail, the present invention relates to the polymerization of radically polymerizable monomers in a flow-through manner using a fine reaction tube with an inner diameter of 2mm or less, and by precisely controlling the polymerization temperature at a prescribed temperature, it can be efficiently carried out in a short time. A method of producing a radical polymer with a controlled molecular weight distribution or a narrow molecular weight distribution, and a microchemical reaction device that can be produced without requiring high-level processing technology using easily available components. Background technique [0002] Recently, interest in microreactors has been on the rise. The microreactor generally refers to a device in which a reaction is carried out in a fine microchannel with an internal structure of about 1 μm to 1 mm, an...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

However, in such radical polymerization, since a large amount of heat of reaction is generated during polymerization, regardless of whether the reaction method is a batch type or a continuous type, in order to remove the heat of reaction, it usually takes time under mild reaction conditions. Carried out, there is a problem that the production efficiency is low

In addition, in conventional polymerization methods, due to the heat of reaction, the polymerization temperature in the reaction place tends to become non-uniform, and in the case of a continuous type, the reaction liquid is difficult to become laminar flow, so the residence time varies locally, and as a result , the obtained polymer tends to be a mixture of polymers with various molecular weights

[0008] In the fabrication of microchemical reaction devices (microreactors), high-level processing technologies such as photolithography, etching, and precision machining are generally required to fabricate microscopic flow channels. Therefore, it is important to easily implement chemical reactions using microreactors. difficult

Images