Publications

Microencapsulation of concentrated sulfuric acid with an epoxy vinyl ester shell

Schneider, Duane A.; Huber, Dale L.

Microencapsulation is the process of placing a shell composed of a synthetic or biological polymer completely around another chemical for the purpose of delaying or slowing its release. We report that Sandia National Laboratories was interested in microencapsulating concentrated sulfuric for a specific application. Historically, acids have been encapsulated many times using various techniques. However, the encapsulation of mineral acids has proven difficult due to the lack of a shell material robust enough to prevent premature leakage of the capsule. Using the Polymer-Polymer Incompatibility (PPI) technique, we screened a variety of shell materials and found our best results were with Derakane® 411-350, an epoxy vinyl ester resin (EVER) polymer.