Instrumentation ACOMP

There are no inherent limitations on which detectors can be used in ACOMP, and detector selection is made according to the needs of each monitoring situation. A standard configuration involves MATS, a differential R1 detector, a UVWIS detector, and a single capillary viscometer. Infrared, fluorescence, and conductivity detectors are other examples of instruments that can be incorporated. 

The Tulane group developed a MATS instrument specifically to meet the demanding environment of ACOMP, and Brookhaven Instruments Corporation (BIC, Holtsville, NY) took a license from Tulane for this design and currently produces the Bl-MWA (Molecular Weight Analyzer) for ACOMP, size exclusion chromatography (SEC), and batch applications (http //www.bic.com/BI-MwAmw.html). 

The background and principles of ACOMP have been discussed in this chapter, with a special focus on how important polymerization reaction characteristics are obtained from the rich data stream furnished by the ACOMP detector stream. Chapters 12 and 13 give examples of the very wide range of specific applications ACOMP has already been adapted to. Chapter 15 gives perspective on the outlook of transforming ACOMP from laboratory R D instrumentation to a robust platform for monitoring and controlling industrial scale reactions. 

A new advance with regard to the instrumentation and methods available for online monitoring of heterogeneous polymerization reactions was made by using ACOMP for monitoring the evolution of multiple characteristics during polymerization. The information-rich data collected simultaneously by multiple detectors provide absolute, model-independent determination of quantities such as conversion, composition, and molar mass distribution and avoid potentially damaging effects of the reactor environment. 

Instrumentation A novel strategy introduced in Reference [39] offered a significant advantage of ACOMP vis-h-vis the in situ methods by involving an ensemble of pumps, dilution, and conditioning stages to provide two streams. 

Dual function filtrodynamics, to both characterize the presence, onset, and evolution of particulates that occur in polymerization processes and protect instrumentation through which diluted polymer reactor solution flows (e.g., as in ACOMP), is currently under development. Challenges include delineating which types of filters work best with given particulate systems (e.g., microgels from natural product solutions, or from microgels occurring in polymerization reactions in emulsions and inverse emulsions, etc.)... 

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