Making the Most of Parameter Estimation: Terpolymerization Troubleshooting Tips

Abstract

Multi-component polymers can provide many advantages over their homopolymer counterparts. Terpolymers are formed from the combination of three unique monomers, thus creating a new material that will exhibit desirable properties based on all three of the original comonomers. To ensure that all three comonomers are incorporated (and to understand and/or predict the degree of incorporation of each comonomer), accurate reactivity ratios are vital. In this study, five terpolymerization studies from the literature are revisited and the ‘ternary’ reactivity ratios are re-estimated. Some recent studies have shown that binary reactivity ratios (that is, from the related copolymer systems) do not always apply to ternary systems. In other reports, binary reactivity ratios are in good agreement with terpolymer data. This investigation allows for the comparison between previously determined binary reactivity ratios and newly estimated ‘ternary’ reactivity ratios for several systems. In some of the case studies presented herein, reactivity ratio estimation directly from terpolymerization data is limited by composition restrictions or ill-conditioned systems. In other cases, we observe similar or improved prediction performance (for ternary systems) when ‘ternary’ reactivity ratios are estimated directly from terpolymerization data (compared to the traditionally used binary reactivity ratios). In order to demonstrate the advantages and challenges associated with ‘ternary’ reactivity ratio estimation, five case studies are presented (with examples and counter-examples) and troubleshooting suggestions are provided to inform future work.