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Stochastic modeling of polymerization in a continuous flow reactor
Author(s) -
Nassar R.,
Too J. R.,
Fan L. T.
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.1981.070261121
Subject(s) - polymerization , markov chain , copolymer , polymer , mixing (physics) , flow (mathematics) , materials science , homogeneous , monomer , polymer chemistry , thermodynamics , mathematics , mechanics , physics , statistics , composite material , quantum mechanics
A stochastic approach, namely, a continuous time Markov chain (Markov process), is employed to analyze and model, in a unified fashion, both polymerization and dispersive mixing in a continuous flow reactor. Results include the distribution of numbers of active and dead polymers with chain length j both inside the reactor and at the exit. This approach can be extended to the determination of the degree of polymerization of a copolymer. Expressions are derived for the mean and variance of the number of monomers of a given type in a copolymer chain. The model can be applied to both the time homogeneous and heterogeneous processes.