| Abstract: | By taking advantage of recent theoretical developments in emulsion polymerization and radical polymerization kinetics at high conversion, a model is developed for simulating seeded semibatch emulsion polymerization. The model is used to calculate the time evolution of the polymerization rate, the monomer conversion, the instantaneous degree of polymerization, the monomer concentration in particles, the average radical number per particle, and the propagation rate coefficient and termination rate coefficient over the whole course of the polymerization. Experimental observations by previous workers, including the existence of steady-state phenomenon and the broad distributions of molecular weight, are reproduced in the results of the simulation. The gel effect on emulsion polymerization and the open-loop stability of the semibatch process are discussed. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. |
