Polymerization Kinetics

This book provides a much-needed resource for the Polymer Reaction Engineering (PRE) field covering polymerization kinetics, mathematical modelling, and polymer reactor design. Literature on this topic has historically been very fragmented; for example, information on crucial, recently developed areas such as Controlled Radical Polymerization (CRP) or Reversible-Deactivation Radical Polymerization (RDRP) and its variants in particular have been historically poorly documented and explained. The chapters are designed to assist the reader in understanding the problems encountered in the design and operation of polymerization reactors, giving them a knowledge of polymerization reaction kinetics and the ability to model these processes effectively. They show the aspiring modeler how to construct a reaction mechanism, create determination system parameters such as rate coefficients, (numerically) integrate sets of chemical kinetic equations, and effectively analyze the results. The book has a particular emphasis on mathematical modelling and its application to polymer reactors; while there are many courses and texts on numerical techniques, the application of these to a particular area can be a challenge. This text, with its explicit focus on polymer kinetics, will greatly ease the path to an effective and accurate model. Polymerization Kinetics is written primarily for upper undergraduate/graduate level students and researchers/academics in polymer chemistry and chemical engineering as well as materials/polymer science and engineering, with relevance to adjacent and overlapping fields where polymerization issues are addressed including biochemistry, biochemical engineering, physics, and general engineering areas.

• Provides a much-needed, up to date reference resource and critical overview for the Polymer Reaction Engineering (PRE) field • Explains the fundamentals of polymerization reaction kinetics • Troubleshoots the key challenges involved in the design and operation of polymerization reactors, with a particular focus on helping the reader to achieve accurate mathematical modelling