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Fractionation of a polydisperse polymer using an antisolvent. Application of continuous thermodynamics
Author(s) -
Wu Albert H.,
Prausnitz John M.
Publication year - 1990
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.1990.070390313
Subject(s) - thermodynamics , ternary operation , polymer , polystyrene , molar mass distribution , materials science , ternary numeral system , solvent , logarithm , flory–huggins solution theory , binary number , polymer chemistry , chemistry , organic chemistry , physics , mathematics , arithmetic , mathematical analysis , computer science , composite material , programming language
Continuous thermodynamics is used to calculate liquid‐liquid equilibria in a ternary system containing polydisperse polymer, one good solvent and one poor solvent (antisolvent). The polymer has a semiinfinite molecular‐weight distribution which can be described by a gamma distribution. From Flory‐Huggins theory, the logarithm of the distribution ratio of the polymer is a linear function of the molecular weight. Because the distribution of polymer between the two liquid phases is very sensitive to the choice of binary Flory parameters. The Flory parameters must be fitted to the ternary data. Results are given for the system benzene, ethanol, and polydisperse polystyrene.