The reaction conditions (high temperature, pressurized gas-liquid feeds) and characteristics (low concentrations of sensitive catalysts, exothermicity, and high intrinsic rates) of industrial processes, such as catalytic alkene polymerization, present challenges for fundamental kinetics studies.  The Wisconsin Quench Kinetics (WiQK) reactor has been created to address these challenges and, thus, enable fundamental kinetic and mechanistic studies of alkene polymerization under conditions that approach those used in production. Capabilities of the WiQK reactor design include high temperatures (up to 150°C), high pressures of dissolved gases (ca. 200 psig), rapid-mixing (millisecond), modest reaction volumes (ca. 5 mL), and variable reaction times (ca. 1 second to hours).  WiQK is a flow reactor that incorporates Berger ball mixers to mix pre-heated reactant solutions rapidly and quickly, whereupon reaction takes place in a flow zone with high thermal transfer for a precisely determined reaction time.  The reaction is stopped by passing the reaction solution flow stream and a quench reagent stream through a second Berger ball mixer. Samples produced in this way can be analyzed for conversion, selectivity, molar mass distributions, and catalyst active site counts via established methods.  Applications of the WiQK reactor to kinetic/mechanistic studies of homogeneous catalysts for alkene homo- and co-polymerization reactions demonstrate the practical utility of this new instrument.

New instruments for reaction monitoring and catalytic alkene polymerization

ACS Spring 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.