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Solution polymerization is a method of industrial polymerization. In this procedure, a monomer is dissolved in a non-reactive solvent that contains a catalyst or initiator.
The reaction results in a polymer which is also soluble in the chosen solvent. Heat released by the reaction is absorbed by the solvent, and so the reaction rate is reduced. Moreover, the viscosity of the reaction mixture is reduced, not allowing autoacceleration at high monomer concentrations. Decrease of viscosity of reaction mixture by dilution also helps for the heat transfer, one of the major issues connected with polymer production as most of polymerizations are exothermic reactions. Once the maximum or desired conversion is reached, excess solvent has to be removed in order to obtain the pure polymer. Hence, solution polymerization is mainly used for applications where the presence of a solvent is desired anyway, as is the case for varnish and adhesives. Other application of polymer solutions is the manufacture of fibers by wet or dry spinning or plastic films.
Disadvantages of solution polymerization are decrease of monomer and initiator concentration leading to reduction of reaction rate, lower volume utilization of reactor, additional cost of the process related to solvent recycling, toxicity and other environmental impacts of most of organic solvents. One of the major disadvantages of the solution polymerization technique is that however inert the selected solvent may be, chain transfer to the solvent cannot be completely ruled out and, hence, it is difficult to get very high molecular weight product. From common solvents, especially chlorinated hydrocarbons are susceptible to chain transfer in radical polymerization. Intensity of chain transfer for different compounds may be quantified by use of chain transfer constants and the decrease of degree of polymerization may be calculated using Mayo equation.