Calculation of molecular weight distributions in polymerization

✍ Scribed by Shean-lin Liu; N.R. Amundson

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1962
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 445 KB
• Volume: 17
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0009-2509
• DOI: 10.1016/0009-2509(62)80067-0

✦ Synopsis

The purpose of this paper is to propose a method for the calculation of molecular-weight distributions for addition polymerization.

The method involves the use of a generating function which reduces the infinite number of differential equations to two differential equations and the evaluation of an integral. The method has the advantage that the concentration of any particular n-mer may be calculated without calculating all of its precursors. Other methods do not have this property. An example is worked out for first-order initiation and monomer termination although other initiation and termination steps may be easily treated. It is again verified that the steady state hypothesis may not be valid.