Modeling of poly(amic acid) and polyimide reactors

Abstract

A comprehensive kinetic model is presented which accounts for the major and side reactions present in poly(amic acid) and polyimide reactors. The mathematical framework is quite general and permits incorporation of heat- and mass-transfer aspects typically encountered in large-scale reactors. A few rate constants were curve-fitted using some (limited) experimental data available in the open literature. Using these (and the other rate constants from the literature), some interesting phenomena have been predicted at higher temperatures. Detailed experimental data are required to evaluated all the rate constants with precision.