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Simulation and experimental evaluation of initiator and surfactant concentrations and temperature effects on styrene conversion and polymer particle size distribution in batch emulsion polymerization

Abedini, H ; Sharif University of Technology

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  1. Type of Document: Article
  2. Abstract:
  3. Effects of initiator and surfactant concentrations and temperature on styrene conversion and polymer particle size distribution (PSD) in a batch emulsion polymerization are investigated through simulation and experimental studies. The detailed model based on population balance (zero-one model), accounting for nucleation, growth and coagulation phenomena has been used for prediction of particle size distribution. In checking the effect of initiator concentration on final PSD, it was noticed that when critical micelle concentration (CMC) is kept constant, the model cannot predict PSD very well. Thus, a correlation for calculating critical micelle concentration has been proposed and incorporated in modelling to justify the effect of initiator concentration on final PSD. By increasing the initiator concentration, conversion increases and final average polymer particle size drops, resulting in a broader PSD. The results show that by reducing the surfactant concentration, polymerization rate becomes slower and the final average polymer particle size increases, resulting in a narrower particle size distribution. The obtained results indicate that at higher temperatures, polymerization rate is higher leading to increase in total number of particles which leads to a smaller final average polymer particle size and a narrower PSD. In all cases good agreements are observed between simulation and experimental results
  4. Keywords:
  5. Emulsion polymerization ; Initiator ; Particle size distribution ; Surfactant ; Batch emulsion polymerization ; Critical micelle concentration (cmc) ; Detailed models ; Experimental evaluation ; Experimental studies ; Higher temperatures ; Initiator concentration ; Polymer particle size ; Polymerization rates ; Population balances ; Surfactant concentrations ; Temperature effects ; Zero-one ; Coagulation ; Concentration (process) ; Emulsification ; Micelles ; Model checking ; Particle size ; Particle size analysis ; Size distribution ; Styrene ; Polymers
  6. Source: Iranian Polymer Journal (English Edition) ; Volume 19, Issue 8 , Aug , 2010 , Pages 599-614 ; 10261265 (ISSN)
  7. URL: http://en.journals.sid.ir/ViewPaper.aspx?ID=177018