Mathematical Modeling of the Internal Surface Area of Copolymer Particles Based on Elementary Gel Structures

The present work describes a kinetic approach which is able to predict how the internal surface area of polymer particles evolve during suspension copolymerization in the presence of porogen. For such a purpose, the concept of elementary gel structures has been introduced by modeling their surface area through the numerical fractionation technique. Thus, variables such as diluents composition, divinyl monomer concentration, and dilution degree could be assessed in the simulations. The present mathematical model is validated by using different experimental data from literature and a fair agreement is reached. Furthermore, the developed model is also capable of predicting the most significant copolymerization variables, e.g., conversion rate, concentration of species, and average molecular weights. A mathematical modeling concerning the dynamics of surface area formation during a copolymerization is presented. The internal surface area of the copolymer particles is predicted through numerical fractionation and the concept of elementary gel structure.