PREDICTION OF RADICALS OF CRITICAL LENGTH IN EMULSION POLYMERIZATION PROCESSES

There is the need of a reliable process model of the emulsion polymerization so that process control and optimization may be adequately performed. Although process models for the emulsion polymerization have been proposed for over three decades, several discrepancies still exist. Here we discuss discrepancies that appear in the way the radicals of critical length are modeled in the literature. We show that the discrepancies cause significant deviations in the prediction of the behavior of the polymerization reactor.