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Specialty Chemistry Forums => Chemical Engineering Forum => Topic started by: arborescent on July 02, 2015, 04:39:10 AM

Title: Heat balance calorimetry: question
Post by: arborescent on July 02, 2015, 04:39:10 AM

Hello everyone,

I will try to explain my problem in the way I can (despite my shaky English).
I am doing polymerisations in a 1L jacketed stainless steel reactor and would like to do, possibly, some estimation about the heat release (or the rate of heat release).
A datalogger allow me to record, every second, three temperatures: oil in, oil out and inside temperature (temperature of the mixture).
Knowing the mass and nature of the chemicals engaged (2 monomers and a solvent), is it possible to calculate the heat of reaction (or some other meaningful heat-related data)?
Thanks a lot for your input in advance,
Arb,

Title: Re: Heat balance calorimetry: question
Post by: Enthalpy on July 02, 2015, 11:59:00 AM

If you know the heat capacity of the product(s), yes. If not, try to compare several similar compounds (per mass unit) and get a reasonable estimate for the heat capacity; maybe the limited accuracy suffices for you need.

For such measurements, normally one more compound is used to absorb the heat, and is chosen with well-known properties, typically water. Then the measure doesn't depend on the heat capacity of the less-known compound.