@inproceedings{01JA5FNB6J1CJVFF0SZD27201Q,
  abstract     = {{Abstract Polymers play a significant role in commodity applications and high-technological industries.
Particularly, copolymers allow us to tailor a broad range of physical properties into a single material by
combining desirable properties of the corresponding homopolymers [1, 2]. A well-known example is high
impact polystyrene (HIPS), a heterogeneous thermoplastic with improved impact resistance compared to
general-purpose polystyrene (PS).
HIPS consists of a PS matrix with dispersed polybutadiene (PB) particles. It is mostly produced by freeradical induced grafting (FRIG) of polybutadiene (PB) with styrene (St) in presence of a conventional
chemical initiator. The (poly)styrene-g-(poly)butadiene graft copolymer (GC) produced in-situ helps to
stabilize the unstable blend of PB and PS. Material properties are defined by their morphology, and this is
influenced by reactor parameters and conditions, e.g. stirring speed, PB content, etc. [3].
In the present work, we perform multiphase Coupled Matrix-based Monte Carlo (CMMC) [3, 4] simulations
(up to 70% St conversion) to study the influence of initial PB content (5 to 10%) on process kinetics, grafting
efficiencies, and average properties and log-molar mass distributions (log-MMD). A literature-based ternary
phase diagram for St-PB-PS mixtures is utilized to account for phase separation [5], and apparent rate
coefficients are used to model diffusional limitations [6].
Results show that St graft efficiency (ratio of grafted to polymerized St) increases with the increment of
initial PB, while the PB graft efficiency (ratio of grafted to initial PB) does not vary significantly. A higher
initial PB content implies earlier phase separation but delayed phase inversion (PI), leading to lower volume
of occlude PS. The delayed PI is associated with broader log-MMDs for the PS, GC, and the total polymer
(TP), and with a more pronounced multimodality of the PS and TP log-MMDs. This work demonstrates the
usefulness of CMMC simulations to study the influence of process conditions on product properties in
multiphase polymerizations.}},
  author       = {{Figueira, Freddy L. and Van Steenberge, Paul and Zhou, Yin-Ning and Luo, Zheng-Hong and D'hooge, Dagmar}},
  booktitle    = {{HIPF 2024, the 6th Hangzhou International Polymer Forum, Abstracts}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  location     = {{Hangzhou, China}},
  pages        = {{16 slides}},
  title        = {{Exploring the influence of polybutadiene content on high-impact polystyrene properties : a multiphase coupled matrix-based Monte Carlo approach}},
  url          = {{https://www.hipf2024.com/}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}