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Continuous dosing of fast initiator during vinyl chloride suspension polymerization: Polymerization rate and PVC properties
Author(s) -
Bijhanmanesh Mohammad Javad,
Etesami Nasrin
Publication year - 2016
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.44079
Subject(s) - suspension polymerization , polymerization , materials science , polymer chemistry , monomer , vinyl chloride , chemical engineering , bulk polymerization , chain growth polymerization , molar mass distribution , particle (ecology) , radical polymerization , polymer , composite material , copolymer , engineering , oceanography , geology
ABSTRACT Continuous dosing of a fast initiator during the suspension polymerization of vinyl chloride has been carried out in a pilot‐scale reactor. The kinetics course of this polymerization and the particle features of the resulting grains were discussed and compared to the conventional polymerization with the same conversion and maximum reaction rate. It was found for the system used that a suitable dosage trajectory allows the reaction rate to remain constant during polymerization. This decreases the polymerization time up to 53% compared with the conventional suspension polymerization, while the molecular weight distribution and molecular weight of the final grains remained almost unchanged. SEM micrographs revealed that PVC grains prepared using this polymerization process had irregularly shaped, uneven particle surfaces and larger particle sizes. The grains also featured high porosity with loosely aggregated smaller primary particles that led to low levels of residual unreacted monomer. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016 , 133 , 44079.