Control of particle size distribution in latices through periodic operation of continuous emulsion polymerization reactors

Abstract

A method is proposed which allows to obtain latices with prespecified number particle size distributions (NPSD), with the only restriction that the said distributions must be monotonically descendent. To this effect, the forced periodic operation of the total feed flow into a continuous stirred‐tank reactor (CSTR) is considered. The method is limited to emulsion polymerizations occurring within intervals 1 and 2 of Harkins' mechanism (1), and verifying kinetics of case II (2,3,4). Furthermore, because the procedure has been developed through a steady state (SS) model, the method is strictly valid in the limit of very low frequencies of oscillation. The technique is illustrated by means of a numerical example.