Particle Growth in Homopolymer Systems

As is clear from Eq. l,the rate of particle growth (R /Nr) is proportional to the monomer concentration, [M]p and the average number of radicals per particle, n, respectively. Thus, n is one of the basic parameters that characterize the kinetic behavior of particle growth in an emulsion polymerization system. Early researchers devoted their efforts to deriving a quantitative description of n by solving Eq. 3 for n defined by Eq. 2 [4,119,120]. 

Smith and Ewart [4] did not obtain a general solution to Eq. 3, but rather solved it for three limiting cases at steady-state conditions, that is, dN ldt=Q. 

Case 1. The number of radicals per particle is smaller than unity. 

In this case, it holds that, pJNy kf, (pJNy)Ng=kfNi, and Furthermore, 

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