REVERSIBLE POLYCONDENSATION IN A SEMI-BATCH REACTOR

The material balance equations describing reversible polycondensation, both polymerization and rearrangement, are derived and applied to the special case of semi-batch reaction. Solutions of the N + 1 equations for values of N up to 40 are presented. A collapsing of the equations to a set of three non-linear ordinary differential equations is effected and shown to be rigorous for the calculation of number average properties. Finally, the collapsed equations are coupled with a normal distribution function to calculate distribution of the species and weight average properties, these results comparing very favorably with solutions obtained from the individual material balance equations. © 1969.