Evaluation of the Performance of a Kinetic Model for Free‐Radical Copolymerization of Vinyl/Divinyl Monomers in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide

The performance of a mathematical model for free radical copolymerization kinetics with crosslinking of vinyl/divinyl monomers in supercritical carbon dioxide previously developed in our group is evaluated using experimental data of conversion versus time and gel fraction versus conversion for copolymerization of styrene and divinylbenzene. The effects of process conditions, type of stabilizer and initial divinyl monomer composition were also assessed. Reasonable agreement between model predictions and experimental data was obtained.