Inline dielectric monitoring of MMA/BuA copolymerization reactions

Dielectric analysis has become an effective instrumental means for monitori ng a variety of polymer resin processing properties. This is because the di electric properties are sensitive to the changes of resins properties linke d to the mobility of the polymer molecules. In the present work, dielectric analysis is used for in-line evaluation of monomer conversion and overall conversion during MMA/BuA solution copolymerization carried out in batch. A n empirical model was derived to correlate the dielectric loss factor and m onomer conversion. The effects of inhibitor and MMA concentration on the di electric properties are also investigated. It is shown here that this techn ique allows the successful real-time evaluation of monomer conversion in la b-scale MMA/BuA solution polymerization reactors, but that limitations do e xist, and in particular the need for experiment-specific calibrations.