A theoretical study of the effect of spontaneous transfer on the size distribution in living polymers

✍ Scribed by V.S. Nanda; S.C. Jain

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1970
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 535 KB
• Volume: 6
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0014-3057
• DOI: 10.1016/0014-3057(70)90059-5

✦ Synopsis

Comprehensive theoretical studies have been made on the effect of initiation and transfer to monomer on the molecular size distribution in living polymers. However, no detailed theoretical investigation involving spontaneous transfer has been reported so far. In the present paper, a study is made of the effect of spontaneous transfer on the molecular size distribution in living polymers for the case when the initiation is infinitely fast. The expressions for the number-average chain length and the weight-average chain length are obtained from the appropriate generating functions which are based upon the differential rate equations governing the polymer synthesis. However, the expression for the size distribution is deduced by following the continuum approach. The stationary state solution of the problem is also investigated. This gives the expression for the size distribution in a simple form which is adapted for numerical computations. Finally, the statistical nature of the polymer in a few typical cases is discussed.