Molecular weight distribution in nonlinear emulsion polymerization

✍ Scribed by Hidetaka Tobita

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 295 KB
• Volume: 35
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0887-6266
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-0488(19970730)35:10<1515::aid-polb5>3.0.co;2-q

✦ Synopsis

A modelistic study of the molecular weight distribution (MWD) formed in emulsion polymerization that involves chain transfer to polymer is conducted, by focusing our attention to the effect of very small reaction volume on the formed MWD. In emulsion polymerization, a polymer radical that causes polymer transfer reaction must choose the partner only within the same particle, which makes the expected size of the polymer molecule to be chosen smaller compared with the corresponding polymerization system that involves an infinitely large number of polymeric species. The usual assumption for homogeneous polymerization that the rate of chain transfer to a particular polymer molecule is proportional to its chain length cannot be used, except when branching frequency is low and particle size is large enough. This fact invalidates the direct use of models developed for homogeneous nonlinear polymerizations to emulsion polymerizations. Model equations that could be used to assess the significance of the limited space effects on the MWD under a given polymerization condition are also proposed.