TOWARDS A CONTINUOUS PROCESS IN HETEROGENEOUS COORDINATED ANIONIC RING-OPENING POLYMERIZATION

The current article deals with the initial developments of the use of a continuous plug flow reactor using an original heterogeneous catalys t system for the living coordinated anionic polymerization of certain oxygenated rings. This reactor is designed in order to maintain the es sential characteristics of the original batch system. One of the perti nent parameters considered here is the residence time of the reactants inside the reactor. The column has been used to investigate ethylene oxide and epsilon-caprolactone oligomerization. Initial experiments ha ve pointed out how the molecular weights can depend on the flow rate f or a fixed bed length. Some theoretical problems relative to the react ive column are discussed in order to investigate more in depth the pro perties of this original continuous process and to model it to find th e optimal working conditions.