Publications

Transport and Reaction Characteristics of Reconstructed Polyolefin Particles

Seda, L., Zubov, A., Bobak, M. Kosek, J. and Kantzas, A.

DOI: 10.1002/mren.200800026
INCOREP, Montreal, PQ, Canada, June 22-27, 2008;
Macromolecular Reaction Engineering, 2(06), November 2008, Pages 495-512.

ABSTRACT

The 3D spatial structure of porous polyethylene particles was reconstructed from their X-ray micro-tomography images. Several polyolefin particles with an artificial granular structure were generated. Transport in reconstructed particles was calculated for the case of a monomer diffusing through both the pores and the polymer. The calculated degassing characteristics of reconstructed polyolefin particles can be compared to experiments. Monomer mass transport limitations are important not only in the early stage of particle growth, but also in fully-developed polyolefin particles. The problems and limitations of the developed method are discussed. The method developed allows prediction of the effect of particle structure on mass transport limitations for real particle structures.

A full version of this paper is available on Wiley Online.