Introduction

Conventional methods to determine polymerization kinetics rely on a measurement of the monomer consumption or on calorimetric measurements. All these methods are integral methods and they are not appropriate to determine the kinetic of individual catalyst particles. Reichert and coworkers have invented video microscopy as a tool that allows the direct determination of polymer growth in gas-phase butadiene polymerization with heterogeneous catalysts.

Results

We present the direct measurement of polymer growth in gas-phase propene polymerization under industrial process conditions by means of video microscopy.The key-element of our equipment is a window autoclave that allows working with pressures up to 150 bar in the temperature range of 0 °C to 120°C. to insure inert atmosphere the reaction chamber is heated under high vacuum conditions before it is loaded with catalyst in a glove box. The reaction temperature is controlled by means of a temperature fluid slope inside the autoclave wall. to start the polymerization monomer gas is introduced to the reactor. We use a black eloxed aluminum disk as support for the catalyst grains.