Reaction Engineering of Step-Growth Polymerization

Batch and semibatch reactors are ideal when the production rate of the polymer needed is small. In larger-capacity plants, continuous reactors are preferred. In these, the raw materials are pumped in continuously while the products are removed at the other end. One example of these is a tubular reactor (shown in Fig. 4.1c). It is like an ordinary tube into which material is pumped at one end. Polymerization occurs in the tubular reactor, and the product stream consists of the polymer along with the unreacted monomer. Sometimes, a stirred vessel (shown in Fig. 4.Id) is employed instead of a tubular reactor. The advantage of such a reactor is that the concentration and temperature variations 

It may be mentioned that batch, semibatch, tubular, and stirred-tank reactors serve as mere idealizations of actual reactors. Consider, for example. 

From the example of the YK. tube for nylon 6, we observe that simple reactors (Fig. 4.1) are building blocks of more complex ones. This chapter focuses on analyzing simple reactors carrying step-growth polymerization. Chapter 3 has already considered polymerization in the batch reactor. We first study the performance of semibatch reactors and examine the effect of flashing of the condensation product on it. 

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Gupta, S. K. Kumar, A. (1987) Reaction Engineering of Step Growth Polymerization. Plenum Press, New York. 

The production of polyolefins by means of coordination polymerization, which is the highest tonnage polymerization process, is discussed first. The following chapters present the production of polymers by free-radical polymerization in homogeneous, heterogeneous and dispersed (suspension and emulsion) media. Afterwards, the reaction engineering of step-growth polymerization is discussed. The last chapter is devoted to the control of polymerization reactors. 

Gupta, S.K. and A. Kumar, Reaction Engineering of Step-Growth Polymerizations, Plenum, New York, 1987. 

Reaction Engineering of Step Growth Polymerization, S. K. Gupta and A. Kumar (Eds.), Plenum, New York, 1987. Seymour, R. B., and Carraher, C. E., Jr., Polymer Chemistry, 2nd ed., Marcel Dekker, New York, 1988. 

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