Condensed‐Mode Cooling for Ethylene Polymerization: The Influence of Inert Condensing Agent on the Polymerization Rate. Issue 9 (28th March 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Namkajorn, Montree; Alizadeh, Arash; Somsook, Ekasith; McKenna, Timothy F. L.
• Is Part Of: Macromolecular chemistry and physics. Volume 215:Issue 9(2014:May)
• Page Start: 873
• Page End: 878
• Publication Date: 2014-03-28
• Subjects: Polymers -- Periodicals; Polymerization -- Periodicals; Synthetic products -- Periodicals; Macromolecules -- Periodicals; 547.7
• DOI: 10.1002/macp.201300757
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1022-1352

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" xml:lang="en"> <title> <x xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <p>Inert condensing agents (ICAs) are used principally to cool down gas‐phase fluidized bed reactors used to polymerize ethylene over supported catalysts. While these ICAs are chemically inert, it appears that they might nevertheless increase the polymerization rate. n‐Hexane is used as an ICA, and an enhancement in the instantaneous rate of ethylene polymerization in the gas phase is observed. This is attributed to a rise in the local ethylene concentration in the amorphous polymer phase surrounding the active sites, due to increases in both the solubility and diffusivity of ethylene in the amorphous polymer. In addition, the polymer particles have a smoother surface with less formation of fiber‐like substructures as the n‐hexane concentration increases. <boxed-text content-type="graphic" position="anchor" orientation="portrait"><graphic position="anchor" mimetype="image" xlink:href="ark:/27927/pgg5nq7snd9" orientation="portrait" xlink:type="simple" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" /></boxed-text></p> </abstract>