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Phase boundary calculations for solutions of a polydisperse polymer
Author(s) -
Koak Naveen,
Heidemann Robert A.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
aiche journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 167
eISSN - 1547-5905
pISSN - 0001-1541
DOI - 10.1002/aic.690470528
Subject(s) - polymer , thermodynamics , solvent , materials science , phase (matter) , polyethylene , cloud point , logarithm , polymer chemistry , chemistry , physics , mathematics , organic chemistry , composite material , mathematical analysis , pulmonary surfactant
A technique is described for performing phase boundary calculations (cloud‐point calculations) for solutions of a polydisperse polymer in a solvent component. The polymer is characterized as a potentially large number of individual components. The technique employs the Newton method for solving the nonlinear equilibrium equations. The independent variables in the equations are logarithms of the equilibrium ratios, temperature and pressure, and the mass ratio of polymer to solvent. A number of cloud‐point curves were calculated using the Sanchez–Lacombe equation as the thermodynamic model. The calculations were compared with experimental data for polyethylene (M W = 177,000 and M N = 8,000) with n‐hexane and polyethylene (M W = 99,000 and M N = 56,000) with ethylene. As expected, the disperse nature of the polymer significantly affected the calculated phase behavior of the polymer–solvent mixtures. Complicating features in the calculations are discussed.