Molecular Weight Distribution Design with Living Polymerization Reactions

Abstract

It has been previously shown that it is feasible to control the molecular weight distribution (MWD) of polymers produced from living polymerization processes in flow reactors through the control of reactant feeds. Here, attention is given to the problem of establishing an inverse process model as a step toward a fully automatic control strategy for the synthesis of polymers with predefined MWD. Particular attention is given to the prediction of instantaneous reactor feed conditions for a specified product MWD. The reactor is modeled as an ideal continuous stirred tank reactor with constant monomer concentration in the reactor. The way in which a real laboratory-scale polymerization system can be developed from this approach is outlined.