Input of supercritical carbon dioxide to polymer synthesis: An overview

The ongoing search for environmentally friendlier alternative to the organic solvents used in chemical processes has led to the development of technologies based on supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO(2)), which is non-flammable, non-toxic and relatively inert fluid. Polymer chemistry does not escape this trend and last achievements in the field of polymer synthesis in scCO(2) are reviewed here. Without claiming to be exhaustive, we go through and discuss the benefits of the main polymerization processes in scCO(2) including homogeneous, precipitation, dispersion, suspension and emulsion systems. A particular attention is drawn to water/carbon dioxide emulsion polymerization and to the suited surface active agents. This review also underlines that heterogeneous polymerization based on CO2 is more than a strategy for reducing the ecological footprint of the polymer production but it allows structuring the polymer materials into particles or highly interconnected macroporous networks. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.