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A melt prepolymerization of poly(ethylene terephthalate) in semibatch stirred reactors
Author(s) -
Lei G. D.,
Choi K. Y.
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.1990.070411135
Subject(s) - ethylene , transesterification , polymer , polymerization , poly ethylene , materials science , polymer chemistry , chemical engineering , molar mass distribution , process (computing) , chemistry , catalysis , organic chemistry , composite material , computer science , engineering , operating system
A semibatch melt prepolymerization of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) is studied. Being characterized by complex reaction pathways leading to various functional end groups and side products, PET prepolymerization process poses a challenging modeling problem. Ten distinct polymeric species have been defined in accordance with the type of functional end groups and the corresponding mass balance and moment equation are developed to estimate the progress of reaction and polymer molecular weight. The effect of various reactor operating conditions on the performance of the polymerization process has been examined through numerical simulation of the molecular species model developed. In particular, the effect of incomplete transesterification of methyl ester groups on the polymer molecular weight has been investigated in detail.