Premium
Multifunctional step growth polymerizations in cascades of isothermal, continuous flow, stirred tank reactors
Author(s) -
Gupta Santosh K.,
Bafna Sudhir S.,
Kumar Anil
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
polymer engineering and science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.503
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1548-2634
pISSN - 0032-3888
DOI - 10.1002/pen.760250605
Subject(s) - isothermal process , continuous stirred tank reactor , residence time (fluid dynamics) , materials science , work (physics) , monomer , flow (mathematics) , thermodynamics , polymerization , steady state (chemistry) , homogeneous , plug flow reactor model , continuous flow , mechanics , nuclear engineering , chemical engineering , chemistry , physics , engineering , composite material , polymer , geotechnical engineering
The step growth polymerization of RA f type multifunctional monomers (with A reacting with A ) in cascades of isothermal, homogeneous, continuous flow stirred tank reactors (HCSTR's) is simulated. It is found that our equations reduce to those of Cozewith, et al . If either f or the molecular weights are large. However, under certain conditions, the low molecular weight correction is significant and the more exact equations of the present work must be used. Several possible start‐up strategies are discussed, of which one is amenable to analytical solution. This is the one in which all HCSTR's are filled initially with the steady state feed from the previous reactor and the outputs from any reactor, during its start‐up period, are discarded to an ‘off spec’ tank. It is found that for this case, in order to ensure nongelling operation, the mean residence time of any HCSTR must lie below a certain critical value, depending on the value of f and the feed conditions.