MEASURING PARTICLE SIZE DISTRIBUTION OF LATEX PARTICLES IN THE SUBMICROMETER RANGE USING SIZE-EXCLUSION CHROMATOGRAPHY AND TURBIDITY SPECTRA.

Turbidity spectra and size exclusion chromatography (SEC) are two techniques which could be used for the on- and off-line monitoring of polymer particle size during the polymerization. An experimental evaluation of the two techniques is reported herein and it is shown that they satisfactorily follow the change of the particle size during the reaction. Information from SEC analysis is exploited to experimentally evaluate the turbidity spectra technique and investigate its potential to be used as an on-line measurement of particle size for latex reactor control.