Matrix Representation of Polymer Chain Size Distributions, 3 – Case Studies for Linear Polymerization Mechanisms at Transient Conditions

Abstract

AbstractThe mass balance equations used to describe different polymerization systems are represented and analyzed with the help of a general matrix framework previously developed. Some of its properties were presented in previous works and are illustrated here in three examples. The first example regards the dynamics of a copolymerization reactor. It is shown that terminal and penultimate models may predict qualitatively different responses in batch reactions. The second example also regards the dynamics of copolymerization reactions. It is shown how manipulation of initial conditions and monomer feed rates can be used to keep copolymer composition constant throughout the batch. The third example concerns the existence of oscillating chain size distributions when there are multiple monomer insertion steps.magnified image