DETERMINATION OF THE PARTICIPATION OF COMONOMER COMPLEXES IN THE MACROMOLECULE PROPAGATION BY COPOLYMER COMPOSITION TRIADS

A new method for the determination of the participation of comonomer c omplexes, participation in the formation of the copolymer molecule and the reactivities of comonomers before and after their incorporation i n the complex, is developed. Its essence consists of the simulation of copolymer chain propagation by the regular Markov chain with three ty pes of states reflecting the addition of the comonomer molecules and t he first or second components of the complex to the propagating chain. The problem is in the determination of the transition probabilities o f the Markov chain. An algorithm using the experimental information fo r the composition of the triad fractions is proposed to this end. The triads for radical-synthesized styrene-methyl methacrylate copolymers calculated by this method are much closer to the experimental ones tha n those calculated by a terminal model which neglects comonomer comple x participation in the copolymer chain formation.