Model based robust engineering approach for parameter optimization of electron beam induced grafting processes

Electron beam irradiation has the ability to modify polymer substrates by the process of graft copolymerization in order to synthesize water-soluble copolymers having flocculating properties. The influence of the variation of the process parameters acrylamide/starch (AMD/St) weight ratio, electron beam irradiation dose and dose rate is investigated. Models of the means and variances for the dependencies of the quality characteristics (monomer conversion coefficient, residual monomer concentration and apparent viscosity) from the described process parameters are estimated by implementation of the robust engineering methodology for quality improvement. Multi-criteria optimization involving requirements for economic efficiency, assurance of low toxicity and high copolymer efficiency in flocculation process is also presented.