Self-stabilized precipitation polymerization of Fischer–Tropsch mixed olefins with maleic anhydride and vinyl acetate

Abstract

Fischer–Tropsch (FT) synthesis is a platform technology to produce mixed olefins and alkanes with a wide range of carbon numbers. This study presented a terpolymerization strategy to directly transform over 60% of α-olefins in the FT products into high-value polymeric particles by self-stabilized precipitation (2SP) polymerization. Previously, we showed the possibility of the copolymerization of α-olefins and maleic anhydride (MA), but the polymerization was always a solution polymerization and the polymer products could only be obtained by using an excess amount of precipitating solvent. In this study, vinyl acetate (VAc) was introduced as the third polar monomer, and our results showed that merely adding 20 wt% of VAc was sufficient to achieve 2SP polymerization and obtain the FT heavy oil-MA-VAc (HMV) terpolymer particles with spherical morphology, smooth surface, narrow size distribution and high particle yield (≥70%). By adjusting the polymerization parameters, the HMV terpolymer particles with tunable particle sizes (0.2–2.0 μm) and molecular weights (2200–4700 g mol⁻¹) were prepared. Similarly, FT naphtha terpolymer particles were synthesized by adding 17 wt% VAc in the terpolymerization system. Overall, this study demonstrated the feasibility of producing nano-to-micron particles from FT mixed olefins through a simple 2SP polymerization, offering a promising route for the high-value utilization of FT products.