Theoretical Analysis of Nitroxide-Mediated Copolymerization of Styrene and α-Methyl-Styrene under Different Operating Policies and Reactor Designs

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

MACROMOLECULAR REACTION ENGINEERING

WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH

Lugar: Weinheim; Año: 2014 vol. 8 p. 260 - 281

1862-832X

The polymerization that IUPAC terms reversible-deactivation radical polymerization is a controlled radical polymerization technique (CRP) that allows producing polymers with tailored properties without the stringent conditions typical in ionic polymerization. A theoretical analysis is presented of the influence of operating and design conditions on the product properties for the nitroxidemediated copolymerization (NMP) of styrene and a-methyl styrene. Several reactor configurations are analyzed, with different feeding policies and temperature profiles. To this end a mathematical model is developed to predict copolymer average properties and the complete bivariate MWD. Theresults help establishing design parameters and optimal operating policies to obtain desired copolymer microstructures.