| Abstract: | The emulsion polymerization of styrene in a continuous loop tubular reactor (CLTR) has been used to study the process kinetics under eigth levels of sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) concentration, eight levels of potassium persulfate (KPS) concentration, and three levels of styrene monomer (St) concentration. A critical surfactant concentration for the overshoot phenomenon in the monomer conversion exists between 8.02 and 12.40 g-SLS/1-water. Overshoot was not eliminated by changing concentrations of the initiator and monomer. The overshoot in the number concentration of polymer particles was observed in all the polymerizations studied. The dependences of the rate of polymerization and the number concentration of particles in the steady state on the SLS and KPS concentrations are presented. The growth of the average cumulant diameter of particles shows a transient period followed by a steady state. The dependences of the volumetric growth rate of polymer particles on diameter are of the order of 1 for the lower SLS concentration and 0.5 for the higher SLS concentration, respectively. The steady state cumulant diameter depends on an order of ?0.24 for the SLS concentration. |
