MS-6-P-3470 POLYMERIZATION BY ATOMIZATION - AN ALTERNATIVE TECHNIQUE FOR PRODUCING POLYMERIC PARTICLES
Nanoparticles are of great scientific interest due to a wide variety of potential applications in biomedical, optical and electronic fields. Many studies have been carried out in order to produce polymeric particles in nanometric scale. The main reason for this is the higher ratio of surface area per volume, which results in specific characteristics. Such considerations have driven researchers to develop techniques to obtain polymeric nanoparticles with properties that allow application in different areas. In the present work is presented a polymerization process by atomization applied to miniemulsion and suspension systems for formation of submicron particles of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and polystyrene (PS), in the form of homopolymer and copolymer. In this technique, a simple atomizer device is used as an alternative method to break the monomer droplets before feeding and dispersing them in the reaction medium. The monomer droplets formed with the atomizer are directed to the liquid reaction medium and suspension or miniemulsion polymerizations are performed. Reactions using the proposed technique were carried out and the particles of PMMA and PS obtained by suspension or miniemulsion polymerizations were analyzed by dynamic light scattering (DLS) analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). It was observed through DLS, polymeric particles with size between 40 and 300 nm and with spherical morphological characteristics, according to the results of SEM and TEM. The results demonstrated that the proposed technique is promising in obtaining polymeric nanoparticles. Even in suspension polymerization, it was possible to obtain particle in submicron scale. So, the atomization method proposed in this study seems to be very useful, since it could be applied in larger scale processes, different of the conventional methods, as for example mechanical stirrers at high rotation or ultrasonic waves systems that present some limitations for scale up. Additionally, tests are being performed to explore more extensively this process concerning formation of carrier nanoparticles. Therefore, the technique of polymerization by atomization can be an alternative way to produce carrier particles too
The authors thank CAPES for financial support to the project NANOBIOTEC, as well as the scholarships granted.
Fig. 1: TEM of PMMA obtained by suspension polymerization |
Fig. 2: TEM of PMMA obtained by minemulsion polymerization |
Fig. 3: TEM of PS obtained by suspension polymerization |
Fig. 4: TEM of PS obtained by miniemulsion polymerization |