Patent ID: 7795359

Claim:
A continuous-flow process for producing a polymeric material, comprising the steps of: a) introducing at least two solutions, each comprising one or more reactants, into a microreactor including a micromixer to mix the two solutions to form a reacting solution, wherein each reactant is selected from the group consisting of a monomer, an initiator, a coupling agent, a chain extender, a prepolymer, a macromer, and mixtures thereof, wherein the temperature of at least one solution to be fed into the micromixer relatively low and/or the concentration of at least one reactant is diluted sufficiently while maintaining a desirable total stoichiometry of the reactants constant so as to ensure no substantial (co)polymerization occurring in the microreactor; and b) feeding continuously the reacting solution into a flow-through polymerization reactor in a coil form, wherein the flow-through polymerization reactor is capable of providing a residence time sufficient for (co)polymerizing the reactants to form a (co)polymer with a desired polydispersity, wherein the flow-through polymerization reactor is immersed in an ultrasonic bath to minimize or substantially eliminate unwanted high-molecular-weight fractions of the (co)polymer.