On the kinetics of styrene emulsion polymerization above CMC. II. Comparison with experimental results

✍ Scribed by Jorge Herrera-Ordóñez; Roberto Olayo

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 254 KB
• Volume: 38
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0887-624X
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-0518(20000615)38:12<2219::aid-pola100>3.0.co;2-1

✦ Synopsis

The results of a detailed mathematical model developed in part I of this series (J Polym Sci A: Polym Chem 2000, 38, 2201) are discussed and compared against experimental data. The model results, which were obtained without the coagulation of the particles being taken into account, are congruent with the experimental data of the evolution of the monomer conversion and the rate of polymerization. This suggests that if coagulative nucleation takes place above the critical micellar concentration, it is not significant. According to the model, micellar nucleation dominates over homogeneous nucleation, as expected. The results obtained suggest that the observed increment in the number of particles (N) in interval II, sometimes reported in the literature, might be apparent. This apparent increment of N might come from the limitations of detecting very small particles (radii Ͻ 10 nm), the population of which is very significant according to the model results (i.e., a bimodal particle-size distribution is predicted).