China Plastics ›› 2021, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (2): 63-70.DOI: 10.19491/j.issn.1001-9278.2021.02.011

• Processing and Application • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Diffusion Coefficient of Supercritical Carbon Dioxide in Polystyrene Melt

WANG Duyang1, CAI Zhennan2, HUANG Xingyuan1,3(), WANG Long1, LI Mengshan4   

  1. 1.Nanchang University,Jiangxi Key Laboratory of High Performance Precision Molding,Nanchang 330031,China
    2.Jiangxi V & T College Communications,Nanchang 330013,China
    3.East China University of Technology,Jiangxi Key Laboratory of Polymer Micro Nano Manufacturing and Devices,Nanchang 330013,China
    4.Institute of Physics and Electronic Information,Gannan Normal University,Ganzhou 341000,China
  • Received:2020-08-21 Online:2021-02-26 Published:2021-02-22

Abstract:

There is a close relationship between the quality of the microcellular foaming material and the amount of supercritical CO2 dissolved in the polymer melt along with its dissolution rate. A finite element simulation method was adopted to obtain the equivalent diffusion coefficient under different conditions to characterize the dissolution rate. A volumetric?based experimental device was used to measure the amount of supercritical CO2 dissolved in the polymer melt under different conditions. The change of the dissolution amount at different diffusion coefficients was then calculated by the COMSOL software. Through comparing the experimental data with the simulated ones, the equivalent diffusion coefficient of supercritical CO2 in the polymer under different conditions was obtained, and its error source was analyzed. The results indicated that the amount of supercritical CO2 dissolved in the polystyrene melt increased with an increase in pressure but decreased with an increase in temperature. The equivalent diffusion coefficient calculated by simulation is in good agreement with the experimental result. The improvement of temperature and pressure resulted in an increase in diffusion coefficient. There is no more than 20 % of error between the simulated dissolution equilibrium time and the experimental value. The experimental results are in good agreement with the simulation ones. Therefore, the simulation and calculation for the dissolved amount and equivalent diffusion coefficient are of great significance and therefore can provide a theoretical guidance for the microcellular foaming process.

Key words: supercritical carbon dioxide, polystyrene, dissolved amount, diffusion coefficient

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