Remote sensor for fast, accurate online submicron particle sizing of synthetic polymer emulsions

The technique of dynamic light scattering (DLS) contains a number of inherent advantages which make it ideally suited to automated, online measurement of particle size distributions (PSDs) in the submicron size region. In a previous report we presented preliminary online particle sizing results obtained for emulsion polymerization of vinyl acetate (latex) in a pilot reactor, using a commercially available DLS instrument. Since that initial report we have engineered a specialized instrument system designed specifically for process/production environments and the particular needs of the DLS technique. Here we describe this system and present new results obtained from the same vinyl acetate model system. Our ultimate goal is to characterize the speed, reproducibility and absolute accuracy of this promising technology when applied to latex particle size monitoring under a variety of conditions.