Monomer Transport in Emulsion Polymerization III Terpolymerization and Starved‐Feed Polymerization

Abstract A simple mathematical model of the transport of monomer from the monomer droplets to the polymerizing polymer particles during batch emulsion homopolymerization has been developed and published previously. A Damkohler number for monomer transport in emulsion polymerization is proposed as the ratio of the maximum rate of polymerization divided by the maximum rate of monomer transport out of the monomer droplets. This Damkohler number is calculated from literature values for a number of common monomers. Following standard practice for the use of such a Damkohler number in other reaction‐with‐transport systems, monomers with a Damkohler number above 0.1 are considered to be transport limited. In a third paper the analysis is extended to batch binary copolymerization. Here the analysis is extended to the more industrially relevant cases of batch terpolymerization, starved‐feed copolymerization, and the combination of the two (starved‐feed terpolymerization).