MOLECULAR-WEIGHT DISTRIBUTIONS OF IMPERFECT DENDRIMERS

We consider the molecular weight distribution of dendrimer macromolecu les when some segments do not survive to produce ''offspring''. The Fo urier transform of the molecular weight distribution, and therefore th e number- and weight-average molecular weights, can be computed using numerically exact recursion formulas. We examine a few special cases a nd find, for example, that very narrow molecular weight distributions are obtainable by making the molecule as perfect as possible in the ea rly generations and that it is theoretically possible to construct lar ge dendrimers with arbitrary molecular weights different from the valu es expected for perfect dendrimers, that nevertheless have effectively monodisperse molecular weight distributions.