abstract
- Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), Ministry of Science and Technology of Portugal, European Community through FEDER, Project PTDC/EQU-EQU/098150/2008 (COMPETE-QCA III), Marie Curie Initial Training Network Nanopoly (ITN-GA-2009-238700)
- Population balance equations in terms of generating functions (GF) are used to predict chain length distributions (CLD) of linear and non-linear ideal controlled radical polymerization (CRP) systems. It is here shown that under simplified conditions analytical solutions for the CLD can be found and moreover the fundamental CLD derived by H. Tobita in 2006 is a limiting case of the more general solutions here presented. In order to deal with more complex CRP systems, solutions based upon the numerical inversion of GF are presented. These studies are also extended to the non-linear CRP of vinyl/divinyl monomers where multimodal CLDs are predicted to occur.