Evaluation of SAFT and PC-SAFT models for the description of homo- and co-polymer solution phase equilibria

Abstract

Statistical associating fluid theory (SAFT) and perturbed-chain SAFT (PC-SAFT) are used to model the phase behavior of polymer–solvent mixtures over a wide temperature and pressure range. Homopolymers (polyolefins) as well as co-polymers are examined. Calculations were performed using various recently proposed robust algorithms for polydisperse polymers. Various polymer properties that affect substantially the phase behavior, such as molecular weight, polydispersity, and macromolecular architecture, were considered. For most of the systems examined, PC-SAFT correlation is marginally closer to experimental data than SAFT. Nevertheless, there are a number of mixtures where SAFT is the preferred model.