Polymerization of Three-Arm Poly (e-Caprolactone) Via Reactive Extrusion

Ryan Stearns

Under direction of Dr. Ramani Narayan, Chemical Engineering

Our goal is to Produce Polycaprolactone (PCL) in a continuous process utilizing a twin-screw extruder to shift away from batch-based production and improve the processing characteristics of PCL. PCL is currently made in a batch process, which is not ideal for production needs. PCL is biodegradable and has been drawing attention for potential in single use packaging, biodegradable blown films, shoe stiffeners, and other applications. Current polymers suffer poor processing characteristics such as low melt strength and poor mechanical properties in some cases. Our research goal is to synthesize Poly (e-Caprolactone) via reactive extrusion. The reason for this is that by transitioning to a single-step continuous process, time and energy will be saved at industrial level. As a biodegradable material, PCL shows promise in an eco-friendlier setting by reducing pollutants for companies, potentially saving businesses money that would normally be used towards pollution permits. In addition, reactive extrusion is a scalable, continuous process, and can be adapted to many different process models. The extrusion will take place in a Leistritz 27mm Co-Rotating Twin-Screw Extruder, where we will pelletize the strand and use three methods of identification of PCL. A differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) will be used to determine the temperature of glass transition and melt. A thermal gravimetric analyzer will be used to determine the degradation temperature of the polymer. Intrinsic Viscosity experiments will help determine molecular weight, along with Mark-Houwink constants.