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Free Radical Polymerization

This document discusses free radical polymerization of ethylene. It mentions that highly branched low density polyethylene and copolymers made with polar comonomers are produced only by free radical polymerization at very high pressure and temperature. The document also notes that when linear low density polyethylene became commercially available in 1975, predictions of the demise of LDPE were widespread but LDPE survived and actually grew, albeit at a slower pace than other forms of polyethylene.

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37 views

Free Radical Polymerization

This document discusses free radical polymerization of ethylene. It mentions that highly branched low density polyethylene and copolymers made with polar comonomers are produced only by free radical polymerization at very high pressure and temperature. The document also notes that when linear low density polyethylene became commercially available in 1975, predictions of the demise of LDPE were widespread but LDPE survived and actually grew, albeit at a slower pace than other forms of polyethylene.

Uploaded by

robbyroken
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Free Radical Polymerization

of Ethylene
2.1 Introduction
In Chapter 1, it was mentioned that highly branched low density polyethylene
and copolymers made with polar comonomers are produced only by free
radical
polymerization at very high pressure and temperature. (All other forms of
commercially available polyethylene are produced with transition metal
catalysts
under much milder conditions; see Chapters 3, 5 and 6.) In this chapter
we will review how initiators achieve free radical polymerization of ethylene.
Low density polyethylene and copolymers made with polar comonomers are
produced in autoclave and tubular processes, to be discussed in Chapter 7.
When linear low density polyethylene from the Unipol gas-phase process
became commercially available in 1975 (1), predictions of the demise of LDPE
were widespread.
Though linear low density polyethylene of the period had better mechanical
properties and, at that time, could be produced at lower cost, it could not
match
LDPE's ease of processing and optical properties (especially clarity). Linear low
density polyethylene did indeed displace LDPE in many applications. However,
LDPE not only survived, it actually grew (2, 3), albeit at a slower pace than
other forms of polyethylene.

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