The International Polymer Colloids Group Conference (IPCG) is the most important meeting on Polymer Colloids organized worldwide. In this conference, experts from academia and industry meet in a biannual basis to share the most relevant and non-published results among produced in their labs. Unlike other conferences it comprises only invited lectures (no parallel sessions) and a poster session. Furthermore, the information presented in the conference is not published elsewhere.
The IPCG 2023 took place in Ontario, Canada on 18-23 June. The conference joint almost 100 assistants from academia and industry, interested in polymers in dispersed phase. The session topics of the IPCG 2023 were:
- Biodegradable & Biobased Polymer Colloids
- Modelling & Kinetics of Emulsion Polymerization and Polymer Colloids
- Synthesis & Material Properties of Polymer Colloids
Colleagues from UPV/POLYMAT (Usue Aspiazu, Jose Ramon Leiza and Maria Paulis) attended the conference to present a poster under the title âInline monitoring of emulsion polymerization processes by Photon Density Wave (PDW) Spectroscopy: benefits and limitationsâ. The poster presented the in-line monitoring of the particle size during semi-batch emulsion polymerization reactions using PDW spectroscopy. The production of waterborne methyl methacrylate and butyl acrylate copolymer dispersions were monitored in a wide range of particle sizes (50-400nm) and solids content (up to 40wt%). The work shows that PDW can be excellent tool to monitor particle size in the production of waterborne polymer dispersions but it also shows the limitations of PDW equipment used when the polymerizations approached scenarios where the latex reach high solids content and large particle sizes. Furthermore, they showed that while particle aggregation can be quickly monitored during the process, the creation of a secondary population of smaller particles is still elusive.
