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Residence Time Distribution Study of a Living/Controlled Radical Miniemulsion Polymerization System in a Continuous Tubular Reactor
Author(s) -
Enright Thomas E.,
Cunningham Michael F.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
macromolecular reaction engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.37
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 1862-8338
pISSN - 1862-832X
DOI - 10.1002/mren.201100007
Subject(s) - residence time distribution , miniemulsion , tracer , plug flow , residence time (fluid dynamics) , dispersion (optics) , materials science , polymer , flow (mathematics) , monomer , aqueous solution , plug flow reactor model , polymerization , chemical engineering , polymer chemistry , thermodynamics , chemistry , continuous stirred tank reactor , mechanics , composite material , optics , nuclear physics , physics , geotechnical engineering , engineering
Residence time distribution (RTD) studies were done to determine the flow characteristics in a continuous tubular reactor. Pulse tracer experiments were done at different flow rates and temperatures, and a comparison was made between a homogeneous aqueous salt mixture versus a heterogeneous miniemulsion mixture. The heterogeneous system was studied under two different conditions, one with a monomer‐in‐water droplet dispersion and one with fully formed polymer particles dispersed in water. There were differences observed between all of the systems tested and none of them matched an ideal plug flow condition. The reactor contains stagnant zones of varying volume and tracer spreading was observed in all cases. The dispersion model was found to model the system quite well in most cases.