In Situ Incorporation of Recycled Polystyrene in Styrene Suspension Polymerizations

摘要

In the present work, the in situ incorporation of polystyrene in styrene suspension polymerization reactions is studied, aiming at recycling discarded and off-spec polymer materials. A number of issues related to the effects of the incorporated material on the reaction kinetics and on some polymer properties are studied. It is noticed that the monomer conversion trajectories are not affected by the polymer incorporation, unlike the average molar masses, when initial polymer contents are similar. It is also noticed that the incorporation of polymer samples with low and high average molar masses leads to similar kinetic effects, showing that the Free Volume Theory describes well the gel effect in these systems. A mathematical model is developed to simulate the polymerization reaction, taking into account the average molar mass and concentration of the incorporated polymer resin.