PARAMETER-ESTIMATION IN EMULSION COPOLYMERIZATION USING REACTION CALORIMETER DATA

The feasibility of estimating the kinetic parameters of emulsion copol ymerization using only calorimetric measurements was investigated by s imulation. It was found that for the case in which the average number of radicals per particle exceeds 0.5 only two of the three estimable p arameters (k(I), k(a), and k(t)) could be estimated together provided that an accurate value for the third parameter is available from indep endent measurements. For systems with (n) over bar < 0.5, the three un known parameters k(I), k(d), and k(a) were accurately estimated. (C) 1 995 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.