A novel approach for the estimation of the Sanchez-Lacombe interaction parameters for the solubility of ternary polyolefins systems

Amel Ben Mrad (1) , Nida Sheibat-Othman (2) , Jorik Hill (3) , Michael Bartke (3) , Timothy F.L. Mckenna (1)

1 C2P2 - Laboratoire de Chimie, Catalyse, Polymères et Procédés, R 5265
2 LAGEPP - Laboratoire d'automatique, de génie des procédés et de génie pharmaceutique
3 MLU - Martin-Luther-Universität Halle Wittenberg

The total solubility of ethylene in LLDPE in presence of propane, isobutane and 1-butene is measured using a gravimetric technique at 70 °C and pressures up to 5 bars. In order to overcome the lack of experimental partial solubility data in ternary systems, a novel approach for the estimation of the Sanchez-Lacombe interaction parameters is proposed. The total solubility measurements combined with the independent estimate of the compressibility factor for a mixture of gases using Peng-Robinson EoS as a second “data source” were fitted to SL EoS in order to identify its interaction parameters. This makes it possible to calculate individual component solubility data for the two penetrants in a non-ideal ternary system where the third phase is polyethylene. The observed trends were theoretically interpreted because no available data can be found in the literature for these studied systems. Good agreement was observed between the experimental overall solubility and SL EoS combined to PR EoS, with a difference of 1–4% for the overall solubilities and a maximum of 0.8% for the compressibility factor.

Mots clés: Sanchez-Lacombe; modeling; ternary system; Peng-Robinson; ICA; co-solubility

Domaines: Polymères

Amel Ben Mrad, Nida Sheibat-Othman, Jorik Hill, Michael Bartke, Timothy F.L. Mckenna. A novel approach for the estimation of the Sanchez-Lacombe interaction parameters for the solubility of ternary polyolefins systems. Chemical Engineering Journal, inPress, 421 (2), pp.127778. ⟨10.1016/j.cej.2020.127778⟩. ⟨hal-03142064⟩