Modeling of Free Radical Styrene/Divinylbenzene Copolymerization with the Numerical Fractionation Technique

Abstract

The modeling approach called “numerical fractionation” has been incorporated into a PREDICI model to simulate crosslinking copolymerization. To take into account inhomogeneities of the considered copolymerization, the kinetic parameters of the model are proposed to be different for each generation of the numerical fractionation. Using this approach the chain-length dependence of termination has been incorporated into the model so that even the method of moments could be applied to study crosslinking copolymerization. The styrene/m-divinylbenzene crosslinking copolymerization at low content of crosslinker has been simulated. The chain-length dependence of termination has been found to accelerate the gel point in monovinyl/divinyl copolymerization and must be taken into account for correct description of the gel points.