Influence of reaction operation conditions on the final properties of high impact polystyrene (hips)

• Autor(a) principal: Cunha,F. R.
• Data de Publicação: 2013
• Outros Autores: Costa,J. M., Nele,M., Folly,R. O. M., Souza Jr.,M. B., Pinto,J. C.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Brazilian Journal of Chemical Engineering
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0104-66322013000300015
• topic: High Impact Polystyrene; Polymer end-use properties; Experimental design; Modeling; Properties modeling; Impact strength

The main objective of the present work is to analyze the influence of some important operational reaction parameters (agitation speed, polybutadiene - PB - content and initiator concentration) on the final properties of High Impact Polystyrene (HIPS) produced in bulk. Variable effects are analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively with the help of a fractional factorial design. Physical, chemical and mechanical properties were evaluated through measurement of the weight-average molecular weight (Mw), polydispersity (PD), volume-average diameter of PB particles (D(4,3)) and impact strength (Izod). It was found that PD and D(4,3) depend strongly on the initiator concentration, rubber concentration and agitation speed; Mw depends on initiator and rubber concentrations; and Izod depends on the rubber concentration, PD and D(4,3) in the analyzed experimental range. As a consequence, it was shown that control of final polymer properties can be easily performed through proper manipulation of the analyzed operational variables.