To Control Bead Size Distribution in Suspension Polymerization

Abstract

Suspension polymerization processes are significantly important in polymer bead formation. One of the important factors for bead size control in these processes is variation in surface tension. In this research, the prediction of optimum concentration of a surface active agent was investigated on the basis of the experimental surface tension diagrams. The experimental data show that the desired surface tension for a specific size distribution of expandable polystyrene beads is 64.5 mN/m. In spite of non-linear dependence of surface tension on concentration, the expandable polystyrene bead size distribution histograms indicate that the predicted concentration of sodium alkylbenzenesulfonate by the experimental model match its found optimum value.

Keywords

• suspension polymerization
• expandable polystyrene
• particle size distribution
• surface tension
• surfactant