Abstract：Poly(ethylene adipate) (PEA) with number average molecular weight of 1 000-4 000 was synthesized from ethylene glycol(EG) and adipic acid (AA) by esterification and polycondensation. The kinetics of the direct esterification of AA and EG were studied by batch experiments at 160-230 ℃ in the absence of catalyst. The second-order, shift-order and third-order reaction kinetic models were developed on the basis of different catalytic mechanisms of esterification reaction, the kinetic parameters were estimated by genetic algorithms, and the average relative error between experimental data and calculatied results was less than 8%. The model identification results showed that the third-order kinetic model with self-catalyzed by carboxyl could fit the experimental data well.
