Predicting solubility and swelling ratio of blowing agents in rubbery polymers using PC-SAFT Equation of State

The PC-SAFT Equation of State is applied here to study polymer - blowing agent phase equilibrium in various systems of industrial interest. Where required, PC-SAFT parameters of blowing agents and polymers are obtained by regression to experimental data. Gas solubility and swelling ratio of polymer material predicted by PC-SAFT is seen to agree well with experiments. The PC-SAFT model is then extended to predict gas solubility and swelling ratio in a broad range of operating conditions, well beyond those reported by corresponding experiments. PC-SAFT has also been robust in predicting gas solubility in random copolymer or gas blend foaming systems showing additional degrees of freedom in foam formulation design, and requiring only inputs from the individual homopolymer or single blowing agent systems. From this work, PC-SAFT offers a reliable method to extrapolate existing measured data and provide guidelines for screening and design of new products and processes. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.