Mathematical modeling of interfacial gel polymerization

Frontal Polymerization (FP) is a process in which a spatially localized reaction zone propagates into a monomer converting it into a polymer. Two types of frontal polymerization processes have been observed experimentally. One is exothermic FP, which occurs due to diffusion of heat released in the polymerization reactions and which we have previously studied. The other is an isothermal FP process, also referred to as interfacial gel polymerization, which is due to mass diffusion of the species coupled with the gel effect. We propose and study a model of interfacial gel polymerization. We determine, both numerically and analytically, important characteristics of the process including the time-dependent propagation velocity of the reaction zone, the structure of the wave, and the distance traveled by the front before it breaks down due to reactions ahead of the front.