In the environment of increasing demand and competitiveness the polymer manufacturers need to augment the production at the lowest cost. This work will consider the polymerization plant in Mitol factory in Sežana, Slovenia, which is nowadays working over ninety per cent of its capacity. The main variables affecting the duration of the reaction and thus the productivity are: the temperature in t...

We report the preparation and characterization of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm) polymer brushes exhibiting controlled lateral variations in the patchiness of polymer chains. These gradients were achieved through an atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) grafting-from approach utilizing surfaces on which the spatial profile of the initiator density was carefully controlled. Initiato...

We report on the grafting of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) onto the surface of high-density functionalized graphene oxides (GO) through controlled radical polymerization (CRP). To increase the density of surface grafting, GO was first diazotized (DGO), followed by esterification with 2-bromoisobutyryl bromide, which resulted in an atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) initiator-functio...

This paper reports on experimental results of aqueous heterophase polymerizations with monomers of quite different solubility in water ranging from the water-soluble 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate to lauryl methacrylate with solubility in water of only about 10 mM. A calorimetric study revealed the strong influence of both the hydrophilicity of the monomer and the stirrer speed on the rate of poly...