MOLECULAR-WEIGHT DISTRIBUTIONS IN FREE-RADICAL POLYMERIZATIONS .1. MODEL DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLICATIONS FOR DATA INTERPRETATION

Many properties (e.g., film formation) of a polymer depend on the full molecular weight distribution (MWD) as well as on the averages of thi s distribution. Moreover, the MWD contains the complete kinetic histor y of a polymerization system, and hence an experimental MWD can yield considerable mechanistic information. Complete equations are developed which enable the MWD to be calculated for a wide range of straight-ch ain free-radical polymerizations. These equations also give insight in to the qualitative form of the MWD, thus providing a method for extrac ting kinetic and mechanistic information from experimental MWDs. Metho ds are also described which enable numerical solutions to be obtained for the resulting nonlinear integrodifferential equations. The scheme takes into account initiation, transfer, propagation, and termination, allowing all of these to be dependent upon the degrees of polymerizat ion of the chains involved. The model is applicable to bulk and soluti on polymerizations and to compartmentalized systems (conventional and micro- and miniemulsion polymerizations); in the latter case, phase-tr ansfer events (radical entry into and exit from latex particles, and t he aqueous phase kinetics of the various radical species) are specific ally included. The dependence of the termination rate coefficient upon the lengths of both participating chains is especially important in s ystems where termination is kinetically significant. Approximate analy tical solutions are also developed for a number of cases of interest. These show that the instantaneous number MWD at high molecular weights is a single exponential-even when termination occurs to a significant extent-which is a direct consequence of the chain-length dependence o f termination rate coefficients, i.e., most termination events involve at least one very short chain. When the concentration of radicals in the system is low, the ''decay constant'' of the exponential part of t he MWD is given by the ratio of transfer to propagation rate coefficie nts. In addition, the cumulative MWD frequently has the same behavior as the instantaneous MWD. This has the important implication that cons iderable mechanistic information can be obtained from size exclusion c hromatography data by plotting In(number MWD) against molecular weight . Such plots can reveal, for example, the termination mechanism that c ontrols the MWD, values of transfer constants, and nucleation mechanis ms in emulsion polymerization. Illustrative calculations are carried o ut for a number of systems. These verify the conclusions from the appr oximate analytic solutions and Show also that the MWD in bulk or solut ion polymerizations at low conversions and high initiator concentratio ns is sensitive to the mode of termination (combination or disproporti onation).