Modeling Spray Drying of Redispersible Polyacrylate Powder

Abstract

Spray drying was used to produce redispersible polyacrylate powder (RPP) from polyacrylate latex particles with a soft-core/hard-shell configuration. The optimal pretreatment parameters were determined by investigating the effects of the contents of silica sol and the protective colloid, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), the viscosity of the latex, and solid content of the latex on the redispersibility, moisture content, and residual ratio of RPP particles. The optimal spray-drying parameters were established by investigating the effects of the drying temperature and atomizing speed on the moisture content, residual ratio, redispersibility, and film-forming ability of RPP particles. The dynamic mass- and energy-control equations were combined to establish a model of spray-drying RPP particles. The changes in the temperature and moisture content of the RPP droplets were predicted by coupling the two equations and running a code developed in MATLAB.

[Supplementary materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Drying Technology for the following free supplemental resource(s): MATLAB code.]

Keywords:

• Powder
• Spray-drying polymer drying

FUNDING

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial fund of National Natural Science Foundation of China (50803017) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central University, SCUT (2013ZM0070).

Notes

Note: the solid content of redispersed latex was 10%.