Efficient Modeling of the Complete Molecular Weight Distribution in “Living” Free Radical Polymerization Using Probability Generating Functions

MARIANO ASTEASUAIN; MATHEUS SOARES; MARCELO K. LENZI; CLAUDIA SARMORIA; JOSÉ C. PINTO; ADRIANA BRANDOLIN

Ciudad de Buenos Aires

Congreso; XXII Interamerican Congress of Chemical Engineering; 2006

Asociación Argentina de Ingenieros Químicos

"Living" free radical polymerization combines advantages of traditional living polymerization and free radical polymerization. One of the applications of this process is the production of polymers with narrow or complex-shaped molecular weight distributions (MWD). A mathematical model of this process able to predict the complete MWD is an essential tool to study the influence of the different operating variables on this molecular property. In this work, we apply the probability generating function (pgf) transformation for modeling the complete MWD in a nitroxide-mediated "living" free radical polymerization. We show that the MWD can be predicted with the same level of accuracy as with those methods that compute the mass balances of all polymeric chains composing the MWD. We also show that the pgf technique is an efficient tool for modeling the complete MWD in simulation and optimization problems.