Elementary steps devolatilization

Subsequent to polymer manufacture, it is often necessary to remove dissolved volatiles, such as solvents, untreated monomer, moisture, and impurities from the product. Moreover, volatiles, water, and other components often need to be removed prior to the shaping step. For the dissolved volatiles to be removed, they must diffuse to some melt-vapor interface. This mass-transport operation, called devolatilization, constitutes an important elementary step in polymer processing, and is discussed in Chapter 8. For a detailed discussion of diffusion, the reader is referred to the many texts available on the subject here we will only present the equation of continuity for a binary system of constant density, where a low concentration of a minor component A diffuses through the major component ... 

The elementary step of devolatilization, discussed in this chapter, refers to the removal of relatively low concentrations of volatiles of the order of 1% or less. Much of the research, which elucidated the devolatilization step, took place over the past two decades. Joseph A. Biesenberger, one of the pioneers of devolatilization research, published the first review on the subject in 1983 (1), and more recently, Ramon J. Albalak edited a volume devoted to this subject in 1996 (2). 

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