【Abstract】 The degradation of polystyrene in supercritical toluene was studied at 310—370℃, 3.6—5.2 MPa by using a novel fast reactor. Supercritical solvents have unique properties such as excellent heat and mass transfer. Compared with thermal degradation without solvents, supercritical degradation obtains high conversion in a very short reaction time. The supercritical degradation of polystyrene is a typical free radical reaction mechanism, including chain fission, disproportionation, radical recombination, β-scission, intermolecular abstraction and intramolecular abstraction. Based on the reaction mechanism, the process of polystyrene degradation in supercritical toluene was modeled at the mechanistic level by using population balance equations formulated via the method of moments. The predictions of the degradation conversion of polystyrene were compared with experimental results, and the agreement was good.更多还原