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PULSED ELECTRON BEAM POLYMERIZATION

2005 Dahlquist Award Winner

Douglas Weiss, Senior Specialist, 3M Company, St. Paul, MN
Douglas Dunn, Senior Specialist, 3M Company, St. Paul, MN
K. Benjamin Richter, Ph.D. Candidate, Dept. of Chem. Engr. & Mat. Sci., University of Minnesota
Richard Adler, Senior Principal Scientist, Ionatron, Tucson, AZ

Electron beam radiation has been used successfully to crosslink polymers, and it has also been applied to curing applications where ultraviolet light (UV) does not work as well (opaque, etc) (1). It has not been generally applied to polymerization, however, which mostly converts monomers (as opposed to oligomers) and therefore requires more time to complete. Most curing applications are basically for the purpose of hardening a coating, much like a chemical equivalent of drying. If the material under consideration is a pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA), then meeting the more demanding physical property requirements that depend on polymer structure offers considerable challenges. To make a high performance PSA, a high molecular weight, crosslinked network is essential.