A Kinetic and Heat Balance Model for Anionic Batch Block Copolymerization of Styrene and Isoprene

Abstract

Anionic polymerization is an established process for the synthesis of well-defined block copolymers. Due to the high reaction rates, a good knowledge of the process and its heat generation is of great importance for safe reaction control. This is to be achieved by the development and validation of a combined kinetic and heat transport model. The validation of the combined model was based on the experimentally anionic homo-polymerization of styrene that was expanded for the block co-polymerization of styrene and isoprene carried out in cyclohexane in batch reactors.