Study on the rate of seeded emulsion copolymerization of styrene and acrylonitrile using polystyrene latex particles as seed

It is demonstrated that the monomer conversion versus time curves observed in the seeded emulsion copolymerization of styrene and acrylonitrile at 50 C can be explained very well by the simulation results obtained by employing the kinetic model previously developed for an emulsion copolymerization system by the present authors. In the model predictions, thermodynamic equilibrium equations are used for predicting the monomer concentrations in the copolymer particles, and the free volume theory is applied to account for the diffusion-controlled termination in the copolymer particles that often takes place in the region after the monomer droplets have disappeared from the water phase.