COMPOSITION CONTROL IN EMULSION COPOLYMERIZATION .1. OPTIMAL MONOMER FEED POLICIES

The problem of producing polymers with constant instantaneous composition in semibatch reactors has been addressed in the most general terms. A rigorous procedure for determining a priori the monomer feed policy that allows one to produce, with a minimum reaction time, a given amount of polymer, with constant instantaneous composition and complete monomer depletion, has been developed. The procedure involves the knowledge of only the monomer reactivity ratios and the interphase partition laws. Its practical implementation needs the on-line monitoring of conversion. The reliability of the theoretical approach has been tested by comparison with the optimal policies obtained in the literature, for three different binary systems, as the result of various experimental iterative procedures. (C) 1994 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.