Diffusion-controlled vinyl polymerization. Modeling and simulation

The aim of this paper is to model and simulate the free radical polymerization of some acrylate monomers such as: methylmethacrylate, ethylacrylate, propylacrylate, ethylmethacrylate. The gel and glass effects were taken into account by including in the kinetic model Chiu's relations for variation of termination and propagation rate constants. The adjustable parameters in Chiu's model were determined by fitting simulation results to the experimental data in the following conditions: (a) to obtain a good agreement for both monomer conversion and molecular weight; (b) to perform the concordance experiment-simulation for monomer conversion and molecular weight, separately. Also, the optimal values of the empirical parameters were obtained: (a) for each set of experimental conditions, or (b) for all available data of a polymerization system.