TOPOLOGICAL ANALYSIS ON THE DISPERSION POLYMERIZATION OF STYRENE IN ETHANOL

A topological theory has been introduced to explain and evaluate the f ractional volumes of system materials, the change of the weight and co ncentration of monomer molecules, molecular weight distribution, and i nteraction functions of polymer-polymer and polymer-oligomer, etc. for dispersion polymerization. The previous theory of Lu et al. has offer ed only an incomplete simulation model for dispersion polymer systems, whereas our present one gives a general theoretical model applicable to all the polymerization systems. The theory of Lu et al. considered only the physical property term caused by interaction between matters of low molecular weight (i.e., diluent, monomer, and oligomer) and pol ymer particles without dealing with physical properties caused by the structure of polymer networks in polymer particles, while our theory d eals with all physical effect possible, caused by the displacement of not only entangled points but also junction points in polymer particle s. The theoretically predictive values show good agreement with the ex perimental data for dispersion polymerization systems.