Patent ID: 7505129

Claim:
A method of monitoring a solution polymerization process comprising: (a) forming a polymerization material comprising: (i) a reaction mixture comprising monomer, solvent, and polymer product within a reaction zone and (ii) polymer product downstream of the reaction zone; (b) maintaining the temperature within the reaction zone from about 40° C. to about 300° C. and maintaining the pressure within the reaction zone from about 0.1 MPa to about 15 MPa; (c) irradiating at least a portion of the polymerization material; (d) measuring the energy shift experienced by the at least a portion of the polymerization material due to the step of irradiating; and (e) determining a characteristic of the at least a portion of the polymerization material based on the energy shift; wherein the at least one analysis probe has a focus point of about 50 to 200 μm for non-homogeneous polymerization materials and a focus point of about 400 to 700 μm for homogeneous polymerization materials.