The influence of mixing on the distribution of copolymerization compositions

The paper shows theoretically that the composition distribution in a copolymer depends on both the type of continuous reactor used in its production and the molecular and macroscopic mixing patterns within the reactor. Examples are given of the distributions to be expected from a plug flow reactor, a CSTR with either molecular or macroscopic scale mixing, a tubular reactor with backmixing and reactors with several regimes of mixing. The distribution curves are compared with those obtained by tracer injection. A short account is given of the experimental difficulties encountered in reproducing the composition distributions.