Automatic continuous online ACOMP

Because the reaction medium is normally quite concentrated, however, rheological and other measurements often only indirectly measure molecular mass and other single chain properties, because the interactions between polymer chains often dominate signals from undiluted reactor contents. Automatic continuous online monitoring of polymerization reactions (ACOMP) provides a solution for this. ACOMP is covered in Chapters 11-13. 

It is important to emphasize that the development of fiber optics technology is a fundamental cornerstone that allowed for the development of real in-line and in-situ monitoring spectroscopic techniques, as the sampling device can be placed at very harmful environments, while the spectrometer still sits in a process control room. Without the support of fiber optics technology, samples have to be prepared and placed inside the illuminated chambers (as performed in the lab since the nineteenth century) or pumped through sampling windows (as performed in advanced systems intended for process and product development, such as automatic continuous online monitoring of polymerization reactions (ACOMP) [37- 1] in order for spectral data to be obtained. 

Alb AM. Automatic Continuous Online Monitoring of Polymerization Reactors (ACOMP) Progress in Characterization of Polymers and Polymerization Reactions. PhD Thesis, Tulane University, New Orleans. 

Alb AM, Reed WF. Recent advances in Automatic Continuous Online, Monitoring of Polymerization reactors (ACOMP). Macromol Symp 2008 271 15-25. 

AUTOMATIC CONTINUOUS ONLINE MONITORING OF POLYMERIZATION REACTIONS (ACOMP)... 

Mignard E, Guerret O, Berlin D, Reed WF. Automatic Continuous Online Monitoring of Polymerization reactions (ACOMP) of high viscosity reactions. Polym Mat Sci Eng 2003 88 314-316. 

Novel approaches in the online monitoring of the synthesis of the amphiphilic copolymers by Automatic continuous online monitoring of polymerization were recently reported by Alb et al. [23]. The ACOMP monitoring platform was used to follow in real time the synthesis of 2-(dimelhylamino)ethyl acrylate (DMAEA)/styrene (sty) copolymers by RAFT. 

As shown in Chapter 1, the initiation step in free radical polymerization can be rate limited either by decomposition of the initiator or diffusion-controlled initiation of decomposed radicals with the first monomer. Automatic continuous online monitoring of polymerization reactions (ACOMP) was used to experimentally observe the crossover between decomposition control and diffusion control of the initiation step. The crossover was observed both among potassium persulfate initiated acrylamide (Am) free radical polymerization reactions at different concentrations of Am and in single reactions. There is no appreciable chain transfer in this particular polymerization. 

The preceding two chapters have focused on the capabihties of automatic continuous online monitoring of polymerization reactions (ACOMP) in the area of polymerization monitoring. Related characterization challenges include time-dependent processes apart from polymerization reactions, behavior of multicomponent systems, and the issue of particulates coexisting with polymers. Recent methods for dealing with these issues are presented in this chapter. 

As previously discussed in Chapters 11-13, the automatic continuous online monitoring of polymerization reactions (ACOMP) technology has been used successfully to monitor a wide range of polymerization reactions in work dating back to 1998 [1], Nnmerons examples have been given in the previous three chapters (Chapters 11-13) [2-7]. 

Reed and coworkers developed a strategy for automatic continuous online monitoring of polymerization (ACOMP). The method may be used during the initial development of the polymerization process, its optimization and monitoring of the continuous reaction. ACOMP automatically dilutes samples from the reactor and measures its properties, e.g., refractive index, near infrared (NIR) spectra, LSc, [ ]], etc., from which it computes evolution of MW, MWD, degree of conversion, copolymer composition (in copolymerization) and others. The method has been applied to a variety of the free radical homo- and co-polymerizations, including the reactions in emulsion or suspension. ... 

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