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Modeling of Slurry Polymerization of Ethylene Using a Soluble Cp 2 ZrCl 2 /MAO Catalytic System
Author(s) -
Ahmadi Mostafa,
Nekoomanesh Mehdi,
Jamjah Roghieh,
Zohuri Gholamhossein,
Arabi Hassan
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
macromolecular theory and simulations
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.37
H-Index - 56
eISSN - 1521-3919
pISSN - 1022-1344
DOI - 10.1002/mats.200700010
Subject(s) - polymerization , catalysis , chemistry , activation energy , chain transfer , yield (engineering) , kinetic energy , monomer , chain propagation , ethylene , polymer chemistry , slurry , molar mass distribution , reaction rate constant , kinetic chain length , solution polymerization , thermodynamics , radical polymerization , polymer , kinetics , organic chemistry , physics , quantum mechanics
The slurry homopolymerization of ethylene catalyzed by a Cp 2 ZrCl 2 /MAO catalytic system was studied. A simple kinetic model including initiation, propagation, transfer to monomer and cocatalyst, spontaneous transfer and spontaneous deactivation was developed to predict dynamic yield of polymerization and molecular weight of final products. Kinetic constants were estimated by numerical solution of polymerization kinetic model, combined with Nelder‐Mead simplex method. The model predicts that the propagation reaction has the lower activation energy in relation to chain transfer reactions which leads to decrease of molecular weight at elevated temperatures. The initiation reaction has however, the highest activation energy that results in raising the peak of reaction rate at higher temperatures.