Controlled grafting of vinylic monomers on polyolefins: a robust mathematical modeling approach.

Experimental and mathematical modeling analyses were used for controlling melt free-radical grafting of vinylic monomers on polyolefins and, thereby, reducing the disturbance of undesired cross-linking of polyolefins. Response surface, desirability function, and artificial intelligence methodologies were blended to modeling/optimization of grafting reaction in terms of vinylic monomer content, peroxide initiator concentration, and melt-processing time. An in-house code was developed based on artificial neural network that learns and mimics processing torque and grafting of glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) typical vinylic monomer on high-density polyethylene (HDPE).