Poly(vinyl butyral) (PVB) boasts a wide array of applications, but its synthesis suffers from contamination of residuals and high energy and water consumption. This study pioneers that chaotropic agents can serve as effective dispersants for producing a uniform particle size distribution and high-purity PVB in aqueous media at room temperatures (e.g., 27 °C). We demonstrate that using chaotropic agents as dispersants offers notable advantages in facile synthesis conditions, energy conservation, and ease of purification while simultaneously upholding a high acetalization degree as well as a uniform particle size distribution. This combination of heightened purity and even dispersion confers a suite of superior properties, including adhesion, solubility, thermal stability, and optical clarity, well suited for practical applications. Mechanistic insights suggest that chaotropes contribute to enhance the conformational extension of PVA and PVB chains and thus accelerate the acetalization kinetics, ultimately leading to elevated rigidity for the resultant PVB granule surfaces. This, in turn, further augments the rigidity of PVB granules to impede their coalescence. This finding offers a valuable complementary strategy for PVB synthesis and deserves exploration in massive production.

中文翻译：

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离液盐分散体可在室温下合成高纯度聚乙烯醇缩丁醛


聚乙烯醇缩丁醛（PVB）拥有广泛的应用，但其合成过程存在残留物污染以及能源和水消耗较高的问题。这项研究开创了离液剂可以作为有效的分散剂，在室温（例如 27 °C）的水介质中产生均匀的粒径分布和高纯度的 PVB。我们证明，使用离液剂作为分散剂在合成条件简便、节能和易于纯化方面具有显着优势，同时保持高缩醛化度和均匀的粒径分布。这种高纯度和均匀分散的结合赋予了一系列优异的性能，包括附着力、溶解度、热稳定性和光学透明度，非常适合实际应用。机理研究表明，离液剂有助于增强 PVA 和 PVB 链的构象延伸，从而加速缩醛化动力学，最终导致所得 PVB 颗粒表面的刚性提高。这反过来又进一步增强了 PVB 颗粒的刚性，从而阻碍了它们的聚结。这一发现为PVB合成提供了有价值的补充策略，值得在大规模生产中进行探索。