caa a22 4500 37892785X CHVBK 20180305123622.0 cr unu---uuuuu 161128e20040109xx s 000 0 eng 10.2202/1542-6580.1132 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)gruyter-10.2202/1542-6580.1132 Reactor Operating Strategy and Secondary Nucleation in Emulsion Polymerization [Elektronische Daten] [Joseph Zeaiter, Jose Romagnoli, Vincent G Gomes] Particle formation is a key step in emulsion polymerization reactions and has been the subject of extensive investigations in the past few decades. The main aim of this work was to investigate, both theoretically and experimentally, the conditions for secondary nucleation and particle evolution in batch and semi-batch emulsion polymerization. The effects of variation in monomer and emulsifier concentration in the feed, the distribution between the charge and the feed, temperature and the emulsion feed rate on polystyrene particle size distribution were investigated both theoretically and experimentally. The population balance and kinetic models developed were employed for predicting the product attributes for a range of reactor operating conditions. The sets of nonlinear algebraic and integro-differential evolution equations were solved efficiently for this work.Monomer and surfactant feed rates were found to have significant effects on the growth of polymer particles and consequently on the particle size. Different particle sizes and distributions were obtained using the same procedure with variable operating mode. A semi-batch reactor with variable monomer emulsion feed can produce latexes with variable polydispersity. A high initial rate of particle formation could lead to reduction in secondary nucleation and hence to the formation of a mono-modal PSD. This can be achieved by using high initiator and emulsifier concentrations in the feed, a high temperature, or a low monomer concentration in the charge. A low initial rate of nucleation increases the possibility of secondary nucleation and the formation of a bimodal PSD. The evolution of a bimodal PSD requires secondary nucleation after primary nucleation occurs. ©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston Polymerization Reactor nationallicence Emulsion polymerization nationallicence Semi-batch reactor nationallicence Secondary nucleation nationallicence Population balance nationallicence Particle size distribution nationallicence Zeaiter Joseph Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Sydney, Australia, zeaiter@chem.eng.usyd.edu.au aut Romagnoli Jose Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Sydney, Australia, jose@chem.eng.usyd.edu.au aut Gomes Vincent G. Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Sydney, Australia, v.gomes@usyd.edu.au aut International Journal of Chemical Reactor Engineering De Gruyter 2/1(2004-01-09) 2:1 2004 2 ijcre https://doi.org/10.2202/1542-6580.1132 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.2202/1542-6580.1132 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Zeaiter Joseph Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Sydney, Australia, zeaiter@chem.eng.usyd.edu.au aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Romagnoli Jose Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Sydney, Australia, jose@chem.eng.usyd.edu.au aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Gomes Vincent G. Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Sydney, Australia, v.gomes@usyd.edu.au aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- International Journal of Chemical Reactor Engineering De Gruyter 2/1(2004-01-09) 2:1 2004 2 ijcre CC0 http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-gruyter