Prediction of the full molecular weight distribution in RAFT polymerization using probability generating functions

FORTUNATTI, CECILIA; SARMORIA, CLAUDIA; BRANDOLIN, ADRIANA; ASTEASUAIN, MARIANO

COMPUTERS AND CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

Año: 2014 vol. 66 p. 214 - 220

0098-1354

In this work, a model for the RAFT polymerization following the slow fragmentation approach wasdeveloped in order to obtain the full molecular weight distribution (MWD) using probability generatingfunctions (pgf). A combination of univariate and bivariate pgf is applied to deal with the univariate chainlength distributions of macroradical, dormant and dead polymer chains, and the bivariate distributionof the two arms intermediate adduct. This allows rigorous modeling of the polymerization system with-out simplifying assumptions. For comparison purposes, the population balances were solved by directintegration of the resulting equations. Our results show that the pgf technique allows obtaining an accu-rate solution efficiently in terms of computational time. What is more, the model provides a detailedcharacterization of the polymer that could be of great help for grasp the process fundamentals.