Design of Copolymer Molecular Architecture via Design of Continuous Reactor Systems for Controlled Radical Polymerization

In controlled radical polymerizations, the lifetime of a growing chain is approximately the residence time ill the reactor train. Under these conditions, it is possible to use various continuous reactor trains (CSTRs and PFRs in series) to manipulate the molecular architecture. This work illustrates the design, by iterative simulation, of continuous reactor trains to produce highly specific molecular architectures. In addition to determining the typical parameters of polydispersity, molecular weight, and copolymer composition, the simulation produces information about the sequence structure in the copolymer. Prior work has shown the ability to use moment equations to analyze the sequence structure of batch polymerization and the potential to vary batch reactor conditions to produce copolymers with different sequences from the head to the tail of the copolymer. This work extends the technique of sequence distribution analysis through Population balances to continuous reactor trains molecular architectures with specific molecular weight, copolymer composition, and sequence distribution.