Benchtop equipment for acrylating a polymer? - (Apr/20/2015 )

Hi!

First post here!  I'm a design engineer and not much of lab scientist, so please bear with me here.  I'm working on a little side project where I need to acrylate polymer and mechanically test different configurations based on DOE.

Here's the part that is outside of my expertise:  I need to be able to cool my mixture to 0 C under a positive pressure of N2.  The mixture then needs to be stirred for 12 to 36 hours, depending on the configuration I'm investigating.  I will be working with small amounts of polyer (less than .5 kg).  I need to purchase equipment (used) to start my material chacterization experiments.  What type of equipment do you recommend?

Thanks in advance,

Boon

It sounds like you will at least need a magnetic stir-plate and "fleas" (magnetic stir bars that go into the stuff you are stirring). You will probably need a cooling coil for the temperature, (e.g. the sort of thing you might find with distillation appartus), but this would also require a source of cooled water. A fridge might work,  but you would need one with electrical access inside (use the bulb socket?) to run a stir-plate. The difficulty here is that we don't know the constraints you are under in terms of temperature tolerance and cost...lab equipment can get very expensive.

As to the positive pressure of N2 - how much pressure? Would a Schlenk line work?  Try here for some ideas.

using a "small" amount of polymer (1/2 kg), a magnetic stirrer may not work well. an overhead, paddle stirrer (like these from thomas scientific) may be a better choice for mixing.

Wow thanks for the inputs guys!  Whats another equipment option for the cooling under N2?

Thanks !

for cooling, you can set up a water bath and circulating cooler (like this one from thermofisher) filled with antifreeze.

place your vessel into the water bath (supported by a ring stand). the vessel should have a side-arm to allow introduction of n2 without interfering with the stirrer.