Two of the most abundant polymers in household waste streams, polystyrene (PS) and polyethylene(PE), may be recycled by compatibilization through a Friedel-Crafts alkylation. The reactionproduces a graft copolymer that improves the properties of the blend. The copolymer efficiency as acompatibilizer is a strong function of its molecular weight and molecular weight distribution(MWD). To aid in the design of operating conditions for the production of this copolymer, wepresent a preliminary mathematical model for the compatibilization process that focuses on the effectof the catalyst and cocatalyst of the Friedel-Crafts alkylation on the copolymer properties.Probability generating functions are used in order to predict the MWD during PS degradation forvarious operating conditions. The model was validated experimentally, showing that modelpredictions are in agreement with experimental data.
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