Research Areas
Polymer Reaction Engineering
Nonlinear Polymerization Modeling
Summary
In spite of the early advances made by Flory in deciphering the mechanistic progression of nonlinear polymerization, obtaining a proper understanding of the dynamic changes in polymer property distribution that accompany gelation could not be obtained because of modeling limitations. Most modeling approaches used break down at the gel point because of the divergence of the higher moments of the distribution. Various approximations were proposed but failed to provide realistic results beyond the gel point.
High Temperature Polymerization
Summary
The phenomena occurring in solution and bulk polymerizations conducted at high temperatures (>~200 °C) are quite different from those known at moderate temperatures. Backbiting and scission reactions dominate, and termination reactions have less impact on the shaping of the molecular weight distribution and the polymer properties. Polymer products made at these temperatures generally show a low molecular weight multimodal distribution dominated by the presence of various oligomeric products resulting from chain scission.
