Modeling poly(vinyl alcohol)-stabilized vinyl acetate emulsion polymerization. I. Theory

A mathematical model for particle nucleation and growth in the isothermal semibatch emulsion polymerization of vinyl acetate stabilized with poly(vinyl alcohol) is presented. In addition to the particle nucleation and growth mechanisms governing ionically stabilized polymerizations of relatively water-soluble monomers, the model accommodates grafting onto the poly(vinyl alcohol) backbone during nucleation, and polymeric stabilization. The user supplies the emulsion recipe, process conditions and kinetic parameters, and the model predicts the various species concentrations, along with the conversion and particle size and number profiles. In part II, model predictions are compared with semibatch and batch experimental results, and particle nucleation implications are discussed.