Kinetics of multimonomer emulsion polymerization. The pseudo-homopolymerization approach

By generalizing the Smith–Ewart theory, a system of polymer particle population balances is developed for describing the kinetics of emulsion polymerization processes involving any number of monomer species. Each population is characterized by the number of active radicals of each type present inside each particle, and described through a size distribution function. An approximation procedure is proposed for reducing the original system to that typical of homopolymerization processes, thus characterizing each population-only through the overall number of radicals, without any significant loss of accuracy. The reliability of such “pseudo-homopolymerization approach” is tested by comparison with polymer composition vs. monomer conversion experimental data for the ternary system acrylonitrile–styrene–methyl methacrylate.