Kinetic Modeling of Semi‐Interpenetrating Polymer Network (SIPN) Process ‐ A Comprehensive Study on the Case of Polyethylene/Polystyrene Semi‐I IPN

Abstract

A comprehensive kinetic model is developed for a semi‐interpenetrating polymer network (SIPN) process, which involves simultaneous crosslinking, grafting, and degradation. Computational expense has been reduced considerably through a new component decomposition strategy, where a continuous variable approximation and a fixed pivot technique are applied for modeling each component. The inter‐polymer formulation is then reconstructed by a statistical approach. Based on the kinetic parameters obtained from the literature and a series of experiments, the model provides consistent agreement for gel fraction, joint molecular weight distribution (MWD) and polymer composition predicted in the studied cases, showing promising capability for the SIPN industrial application as well as for other polymer composite systems. magnified image

Kinetic modeling of simultaneous polycondensation and free radical polymerization for polyurethane/poly(methyl methacrylate) interpenetrating polymer network

“…It should be reminded that the current work mainly aims at the combination of simultaneous polycondensation and free radical polymerization to obtain kinetic insights on IPN so that a single-phase system is assumed for concentration calculations. 39,42…”

“…Therefore, there are two kinetic schemes involved in the formation of the system: the polycondensation of poly(propylene glycol) and polyisocyanate, and the free radical copolymerization of acrylic monomers. It should be reminded that the current work mainly aims at the combination of simultaneous polycondensation and free radical polymerization to obtain kinetic insights on IPN so that a single‐phase system is assumed for concentration calculations 39,42 …”

“…Hamzehlou et al simulated the simultaneous polyaddition and free radical polymerization in heterogeneous miniemulsion polymerization and derived detailed molecular structure information of gel 38 . Lin et al proposed a component‐wise strategy for the polyethylene/polystyrene semi‐IPN modeling process to divide the complex topology of semi‐IPN into three classes of structure components and different solution strategies were employed for each component according to its structure characteristics 39 . In this modeling attempt, the authors made several assumptions to simplify the model, such as single‐phase assumption and monoradical assumption.…”

Simulation of mass transfer and kinetics during double‐network formation using a heterogeneous model

“…Deviations of model prediction from experimental results suggested the importance of the interactions. Jacobson et al presented a component‐wise modeling strategy for the case of polyethylene/polystyrene semi‐IPN and predicted the gel fraction and joint molecular weight distribution 18 . Recently, our group reported a detailed Monte Carlo model on polyurethane/poly(methyl methacrylate) (PU/PMMA) IPN to emphasize the acceleration effect of PU network on MMA polymerization 19 …”

Compressibility of woven textiles on the architecture of a highly ordered cylindrical, orthogonal, hollow‐channeled scaffolds

“…This disadvantage can be overcome through the crosslinking formation of interpenetrating networks (IPNs) . An IPN is a combination of two polymers in network form, with at least one of them synthesized and/or crosslinked in the immediate presence of the other . Homo‐IPNs are a class of IPNs where both networks polymers are based on the same monomer …”