Minimum end-time policies for batchwise radical chain polymerization: the piecewise initiator addition policy

✍ Scribed by Keh-Ying Hsu; Show-an Chen

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1988
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 940 KB
• Volume: 43
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0009-2509
• DOI: 10.1016/0009-2509(88)85105-4

✦ Synopsis

For the radical chain polymerization in a presence of chain transfer agent, piecewise initiator addition and piecewise reaction temperature are considered as two control actions in XV unequal time intervals for minimizing the total reaction time under a given final monomer conversion and the number average chain length. It is found that only one of the two actions are needed to be choosen in the bulk or solution polymerization without chain transfer agent. The initiator addition control is found to be better than the temperature control at the expense of lower polydispersity. The optimal policy of the piecewise initiator addition under the best isothermal temperature is that which gives the highest possible reaction temperature and the least possible total amount of initiator charged just enough for the polymerization to reach the predetermined number average chain length and conversion. With this policy, equal amount of the initiator should be charged into the reactor at every equal time interval. Experimental verifications for solution polymerization of styrene with or without chain transfer agent show that the present method is applicable.