Applications of ultrasound to polymer synthesis

As a relatively unexplored technique, the application of ultrasound to chemical systems shows great promise in promoting a wide variety of chemical processes such as the synthesis of proteinaceous microspheres (Zhou et al., 2010), nanoparticle synthesis (Ashokkumar and Grieser, 1999; Didenko and Suslick, 2005), and the degradation of a range of pollutants (Petrier et al., 1992). The wide applications of ultrasound in chemical processes have attracted intense attention in various fields of chemistry, materials science, and chemical engineering. It exploits the effect of acoustic cavitation (Leighton, 1994); microbubbles present in the solution grow and collapse when sound waves pass through a liquid. This results in the generation of radicals, excited state species, enhancement of reaction rates, and excellent mixing of multiphase systems.