Nonequilibrium polymerization under microwave conditions

In many cases polymerization proceeds under conditions of equilibrium between polymer and monomer. In some cases an initiator enters into the polymerization equilibria. Because of the instantaneity of the interaction between polymer and monomer irradiated by microwaves and the intensity of the transfers, generally a linear theory (thermodynamics) is not suitable in this case. Therefore, for many years, the studies limited to using linear theory for solving this problem could not obtain a satisfied result, in accordance with experimental measurement, for nonequilibrium polymerization by using microwave techniques. The purpose of this paper is to study the nonequilibrium polymerization between polymer and monomer radiated by microwave by means of the Onsager equation of the irreversible process thermodynamics and the differential equation of entropy transfer. For polyisobutene, our theoretical calculation is in agreement with experimental measurement.