Hydrochloric Acid → 2-Methylidenebutanedioic acid--prop-2-enoic acid (1/1)

Participants

Reaction Conditions

Reaction Steps

Acrylic acid (1050.0 g, 14.571 moles), itaconic acid (210.64 g, 1.6190 moles), Wako V-50 (4.3919 g, 16.19 millimole), and 7.9 liters of water, which has been acidified to pH 2.0 with hydrochloric acid, are added to a 22 liter three-necked round-bottomed flask fitted with a thermometer, a mechanical stirrer, and gas inlet/outlet adapter capable of bubbling gas through a liquid in the flask and venting it. The solution is deaerated by passage of nitrogen gas and is then placed under an atmosphere of nitrogen. The solution is heated to 55° C. and maintained at this temperature for 15 hours. The viscous solution of copolymer is cooled to ambient temperature and is freeze dried to give 1,222.1 g of poly(acrylic acid-itaconic acid) copolymer as a colorless solid. The mass average molecular weight, as determined by low angle laser light scattering on a dialyzed portion in 0.2 Molar sodium chloride in water (refractive index=1.3344, dn /dc --0.1683), is 711,700.

Provenance & Evidence