Bimodal coextendant suspension polymerization system

Claim 1

A bimodal co-extendant suspension polymerization process comprising the steps of: (a) forming a liquid suspension medium by mixing between about 10 weight % and about 50 weight % of a polymerizable hydrophilic monomer with water to form the liquid suspension medium having a first initial viscosity; (b) contacting said suspension medium with droplets of a monomer selected from the group of a polymerizable organophilic monomers having a Tg less than -45° C. under agitation to disperse and suspend said droplets in a heterogeneous mixture; (c) reacting said heterogeneous mixture in the presence of a free radical catalyst and maintaining a higher viscosity of the suspension medium than said first initial viscosity, said viscosity of said suspension medium being maintained between about 1,000 and about 100,000 cps during the reaction of said organophilic species, so as to polymerize said organophilic monomer as discrete solid polyorganophilic particles while separately polymerizing said hydrophilic monomer in the aqueous phase as a polyhydrophilic polymer, the selection of said hydrophilic monomer of the suspension medium being such that it possesses a higher rate of reaction than the organophilic monomer; (d) separating said particles from said aqueous phase; and (e) recovering said solid particles as the organophilic polymer of the process and separately recovering from said remaining aqueous phase the hydrophilic polymer, as the second product of the process.