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Free‐Radical Polymerization with Long‐Chain Branching and Scission in a Continuous Stirred‐Tank Reactor
Author(s) -
Tobita Hidetaka
Publication year - 2013
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.201200070
Subject(s) - continuous stirred tank reactor , branching (polymer chemistry) , radius of gyration , polymer chemistry , polymer , polymerization , chain transfer , radical polymerization , bond cleavage , chemistry , molar mass distribution , kinetic chain length , polyethylene , gyration , beta scission , materials science , radical , organic chemistry , catalysis , mathematics , radical substitution , geometry
Abstract Free‐radical polymerization that involves the polymer transfer reactions leading to both long‐chain branching and scission, as in the cases of high‐pressure olefin polymerization, is considered. In CSTR, the residence time distribution is broad and the primary polymer chain, whose residence time is large, is subjected to polymer transfer reaction for a longer time, leading to a larger number of branching and scission points. The distributions of both branching and scission density are much broader in a CSTR than in a batch, or equivalently, a PFR. The radius of gyration for larger sized polymers formed in a CSTR tends to be much smaller than that for randomly branched polymers.