Graft Copolymers for Blend Compatibilization. Mathematical Modeling of the Grafting Process

GIANOGLIO PANTANO, IOANA A.; ASTEASUAIN, MARIANO; SARMORIA, CLAUDIA; BRANDOLIN, ADRIANA

MACROMOLECULAR REACTION ENGINEERING

WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH

Lugar: Weinheim; Año: 2012 vol. 6 p. 406 - 418

1862-832X

In the present work, we study the process of grafting of polyethylene (PE) onto polystyrene (PS) through a Friedel-Crafts reaction, which results in a mixture of PE-g-PS copolymer, unmodified PE, and modified PS. The formed copolymer may be suitable for compatibilization of immiscible mixtures in the household plastic waste stream, where PE and PS are majority components. Since the compatibilization effect depends on the composition and block lengths in the graft copolymer we present a model for predicting the complete molecular weight distribution of the homopolymers, and the chemical composition distribution of the graft copolymer, using for this purpose probability generating functions. The resulting model has potential for its application in an optimization tool for the compatibilization process, as it is able to account for the opposing effects of competing reactions that characterize the studied graft reaction