POLYMERIZATION REACTION MONITORING FOR PSA PRODUCTION USING AN ATR-FTIR PROBE

The utilization of Attenuated Total Reflectance – Fourier Transform Infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy for the characterization of pressure sensitive products is well established. Some recent advances in sensor technology have opened new application areas of ATR-FTIR spectrometry. One of them is monitoring of chemical reactions, which are of interest for pressure sensitive adhesive production. In this work, ATR-FTIR spectrometry was used for monitoring polymerizations of acrylic monomers. Initially, the ATR-FTIR probe was used for off-line monitoring of solution polymerizations. The obtained results were used to establish real-time in-situ monitoring strategies for more complex, heterogeneous systems such as emulsion or miniemulsion polymerizations. In all cases, the performance of ATR-FTIR spectroscopy was compared to traditional monitoring techniques (i.e. gravimetry, 1H-NMR spectroscopy) and good agreement between the techniques was obtained. However, some limitations of this technique were also uncovered. Current results offer a basis for the development of ATR-FTIR spectroscopy as not only a monitoring tool, but also as a tool for process control