Heterophase polymerization is a century-old technology with a wide range of relevant industrial applications, including coatings, adhesives, rubbers, and many other specialized biomedical and high-performance materials. However, due to its multiscale complexity, it still remains a challenging research topic. It is a broad field covering all heterogeneous polymerization processes that result in polymer dispersions. Its technical realizations comprise emulsion polymerization, dispersion polymerization, suspension polymerization, miniemulsion polymerization, microemulsion polymerization, and others. This book is devoted to the science and technology of heterophase polymerization, considering it a generic term as well as an umbrella expression for all of its technical realizations. It presents, from a modern perspective, the basic concepts and principles required to understand the kinetics and thermodynamics of heterophase polymerization at the atomistic, molecular, macromolecular, supramolecular, colloidal, microscopic, mesoscopic, and macroscopic scales. It critically discusses the important physicochemical mechanisms involved in heterophase polymerization, such as nucleation, particle aggregation, mass transfer, swelling, spontaneous emulsification, and polymerization kinetics, along with the experimental evidences at hand.
Hugo Hernandez is an independent researcher and consultant at ForsChem Research, Medellín, Colombia, since 2015. He graduated with honours in chemical engineering from the Industrial University of Santander, Colombia, in 2000. He received his master's degree in chemical engineering from the National University of Colombia in 2004. In 2008, he earned his PhD (Dr. rer. nat.) in colloid chemistry summa cum laude from the University of Potsdam, Germany, under the supervision of Dr. Klaus Tauer. Between 2006 and 2010, he was associated with Dr. Tauer's Heterophase Polymerization Research Group at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Golm, Germany. Dr. Hernandez's industrial experience of 15 years with Andercol S.A., Colombia, a polymers and chemicals company, includes holding positions of process engineer, project leader, research and development scientist, and research and development manager. His current research interests include stochastic modeling of chemical processes, multiscale modeling, heterophase polymerization, and green chemistry.
Klaus Tauer retired from the Department of Colloid Chemistry, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Golm, Germany, in 2017, which he had joined in 1992. He graduated in chemistry in 1974 and received his PhD (Dr. rer. nat.) in polymer chemistry in 1977 from the Friedrich-Schiller University in Jena, Thuringia, Germany. Dr. Tauer then became a scientific coworker in the Institute for Polymer Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences, Teltow-Seehof (former German Democratic Republic), where he conducted studies on emulsion polymerization of vinyl chloride. He finished these studies in 1987 with a habilitation in polymer chemistry.
