Miniemulsion polymerisation in pseudo-bulk regime: Mathematical modelling, prediction and optimal strategy of operation

Abstract

A dynamic mathematical model based on pseudo-bulk kinetics was developed for styrene miniemulsion polymerisation and validated using experimental data. Key findings are that the developed model match reasonably with experimental data and is able to predict the polymerisation attributes and product properties such as fractional conversion, average molecular weight, molecular weight distribution (MWD), average particle size and particle size distribution (PSD) in miniemulsion polymerisation. Optimal strategy of semibatch operation was developed using reaction temperature and monomer feed rate as process variables with specified initial conditions.