Abstract
For the first time an anionic polymerisation of 1,3-butadiene as monomer is successfully
transferred from semi-batch into a continuous microfluidic setup with comparable product
properties. The molecular weight distribution or polydispersity (PDI) is commonly used as a
key criterion for product quality. The steady state and the local resolution of a continuous
setup provide the opportunity to investigate the progress of the PDI during anionic
polymerisation. This work examines the influence of chemistry and fluid dynamics on the PDI
of the product. Therefore a dedicated setup was designed to keep 1,3-butadiene in liquid
phase while providing a pulsation free feed allowing for a constant liquid flow. With different
settings the intrinsic kinetics is determined and a separation of initiation and propagation is
validated experimentally for the simulations and their boundary conditions. To explain the
experimental results a statistical and mass balance approach as ideal plug flow or ideal
laminar flow model is discussed and compared to CFD calculations. Finally it is concluded
which fluid dynamic and statistical weighting lead to the very low PDIs of 1.03 found in the
experiments.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 381-395 |
Journal | Green Processing and Synthesis |
Volume | 2 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2013 |