Modeling of butadiene polymerization using cobalt octoate/DEAC/water catalyst

摘要

AbstractTwo‐level fractional factorial designs were employed to study the solution polymerization of butadiene in a batch reactor using cobalt octoate/DEAC/water as catalyst. Conversion and molecular weight data obtained as functions of time were used to develop a kinetic model, and the estimated kinetic parameters were correlated empirically with four operating variables: temperature and concentrations of cobalt octoate, DEAC, and water. The experimental data indicate that at high water concentration a significant amount of oligomers is formed during early stages of polymerization, and the molecular weight of polymer increases with time. Analysis of the data suggests instantaneous initiation, first order propagation with cobalt and monomer, and transfer to monomer. Models which do not take account of the branching are shown to be incapable of fitting data for bothMnandMw. The catalyst decay seems to follow a first‐order mechanism, but the evidence is somewhat inconclus