Polymerizations in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide

Abstract

The science and engineering of polymerizations carried out in supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) have been studied abundantly in the literature in the last three decades. There are several very good and recent reviews on the topic available in the literature. This article is based on a related contribution by Jones and DeSimone published in this encyclopedia, which emphasized the polymer chemistry background of this topic. The material is updated and enriched from a polymer reaction engineering perspective. The commercial feasibility of polymerization processes carried out in scCO2was proven early by DuPont, which built a commercial plant for production of fluoropolymers in Fayetteville, North Carolina, USA. Unfortunately, the commercial development of new polymerization processes in scCO2slowed down due to environmental and pollution issues associated to some chemicals used in the production of fluoropolymers. However, many new materials and polymerization variants in scCO2keep on resurfacing. The science and technology of polymerization processes carried out in scCO2and novel materials produced therein has reached a relatively mature state and the development of commercial processes for production of some of these materials is certainly feasible in the near future.