TY  - JOUR
U1  - Zeitschriftenartikel, wissenschaftlich - begutachtet (reviewed)
A1  - Ulitzsch, Steffen
A1  - Bäuerle, Tim
A1  - Chassé, Thomas
A1  - Lorenz, Günter
A1  - Kandelbauer, Andreas
T1  - Optimizing the process efficiency of reactive extrusion in the synthesis of vinyltrimethoxysilane-grafted ethylene-octene-copolymer (EOC-g-VTMS) by response surface methodology
JF  - Polymers
N2  - Thermoplastic polymers like ethylene-octene copolymer (EOC) may be grafted with silanes via reactive extrusion to enable subsequent crosslinking for advanced biomaterials manufacture. However, this reactive extrusion process is difficult to control and it is still challenging to reproducibly arrive at well-defined products. Moreover, high grafting degrees require a considerable excess of grafting reagent. A large proportion of the silane passes through the process without reacting and needs to be removed at great expense by subsequent purification. This results in unnecessarily high consumption of chemicals and a rather resource-inefficient process. It is thus desired to be able to define desired grafting degrees with optimum grafting efficiency by means of suitable process control. In this study, the continuous grafting of vinyltrimethoxysilane (VTMS) on ethylene-octene copolymer (EOC) via reactive extrusion was investigated. Successful grafting was verified and quantified by 1H-NMR spectroscopy. The effects of five process parameters and their synergistic interactions on grafting degree and grafting efficiency were determined using a face-centered experimental design (FCD). Response surface methodology (RSM) was applied to derive a causal process model and define process windows yielding arbitrary grafting degrees between <2 and >5% at a minimum waste of grafting agent. It was found that the reactive extrusion process was strongly influenced by several second-order interaction effects making this process difficult to control. Grafting efficiencies between 75 and 80% can be realized as long as grafting degrees <2% are admitted.
KW  - reactive extrusion
KW  - silane modification
KW  - design of experiments
KW  - ethylene-octene copolymer
KW  - grafting degree
KW  - grafting efficiency
KW  - process optimization
Y1  - 2020
UN  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bsz:rt2-opus4-29058
SN  - 2073-4360
SS  - 2073-4360
U6  - https://doi.org/10.3390/polym12122798
DO  - https://doi.org/10.3390/polym12122798
VL  - 12
IS  - 12
SP  - 1
EP  - 18
S1  - 18
PB  - MDPI
CY  - Basel
ER  -