Homo and Copolymers obtained by Emulsion Polymerization. Calculation of the Detailed Macromolecular Structure

RODRIGUEZ, V.; MINARI, R. J.; ESTENOZ, D. A.; GUGLIOTTA, L. M.; MEIRA, G. R.

Buenos Aires

Congreso; XXII Interamerican Congress of Chemical Engineering – V Argentinian Congress of Chemical Engineering; 2006

A mathematical model for the batch emulsion polymerization of isoprene (Is) was developed for predicting monomer conversion, the univariate molecular weight distribution (MWD) of each polymer topology, and the MWD and the degree of branching distribution (DBD) of the total polymer. The model was validated with global measurements of conversion, average molecular weights, and average degrees of branching along the homopolymerization. Finally, the model was extended to the emulsion copolymerization of acrylonitrile (A) and butadiene (B), yielding acceptable predictions of the global measurements. Keywords: Emulsion polymerization, molecular weight distribution, branching distribution.