Knowledge-Based Control of Emulsion Polymerization: Tailoring Adhesive Properties.

An on-line control strategy to produce copolymer latexes with desired adhesive properties (resistance to shear and resistance to peel) has been developed. The strategy required a quantitative model relating adhesive properties and molecular weight distribution that was built using partial least squares regression. The model was used to determine the set-point trajectories of the monomers and chain transfer agent that are used as manipulated variables in the control strategy. The control strategy was experimentally verified to produce an n-butyl acrylate/styrene copolymer latex with a resistance to shear of 1310 s and resistance to, peel of 3.1 N/100 mm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]