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Optimization of Living Radical Polymerization Through Distributed Control of Energy
Author(s) -
Faliks Aviel,
Yetter Richard A.,
Floudas Christodoulos A.,
Wei Yen,
Rabitz Herschel
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
macromolecular chemistry and physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.57
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1521-3935
pISSN - 1022-1352
DOI - 10.1002/1521-3935(20010901)202:13<2797::aid-macp2797>3.0.co;2-7
Subject(s) - dispersity , polymerization , plug flow reactor model , radical polymerization , residence time (fluid dynamics) , styrene , materials science , chemistry , chemical engineering , polymer chemistry , copolymer , polymer , continuous stirred tank reactor , organic chemistry , engineering , geotechnical engineering
An optimal control methodology is applied to the goal of lowering the reaction time while maintaining low polydispersity in living free‐radical polymerization. An illustration is provided using a heat flux to optimize the temperature profile for living free‐radical polymerization of styrene in a plug flow reactor. The reactor designs show that distributed heat flux along the length of the reactor can reduce the reaction time significantly for a given conversion. The reduction in residence time comes at the expense of a modest increase in polydispersity. A reference simulation with no optimization shows a conversion of 85% after 70 h and a final polydispersity of 1.31. Optimization of a distributed heat flux results in a conversion of 83% after only 33 h while the polydispersity rises slightly to 1.39. The theoretical designs, although not proven to be globally optimal, are of high quality.