Monte Carlo simulation of the chain length distribution in pulsed-laser polymerization experiments in microemulsion

The Monte Carlo method has been used for numerically simulating pulsed‐laser polymerization (PLP) in microemulsion, in order to establish if a shift from inflection point to peak maximum as the best measure of the propagation rate constant, kp, will occur theoretically. Termination is assumed to be...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Macromolecular theory and simulations 1995-03, Vol.4 (2), p.325-333
Main Authors: Manders, Bart G., van Herk, Alex M., German, Anton L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied sciences
Exact sciences and technology
Physicochemistry of polymers
Polymerization
Polymers and radiations
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The Monte Carlo method has been used for numerically simulating pulsed‐laser polymerization (PLP) in microemulsion, in order to establish if a shift from inflection point to peak maximum as the best measure of the propagation rate constant, kp, will occur theoretically. Termination is assumed to be instantaneous in the simulations as droplet sizes can be very small in microemulsions. From the results of the simulations it is found that instantaneous termination indeed causes the peak maximum to become the best measure of kp. From these results it can be deduced that in bulk it is not simply the Poisson‐broadening that causes the peak maximum to yield an overestimation of kp. This overestimation is rather caused by the fact that the termination rate is finite leading to an asymmetrical peak in the molecular weight distribution. In combination with broadening this yields the inflection point to be the best measure of kp in the bulk.
ISSN:1022-1344
1521-3919
DOI:10.1002/mats.1995.040040207