AN ALGORITHM FOR MONTE-CARLO MODELING OF DEGRADATION OF POLYMER NETWORKS

An algorithm for Monte Carlo simulation of polymer network degradation has been devised. The object was a random nearly regular molecular gr aph with almost all vertices of degree three. The vertices represented units of the polymer and edges were bonds or subchains of the network . The algorithm was particularly designed to study the effect of the s ubstitution degree of units on the degradation process. The abrupt cha nge of molecular parameters observed at a certain extent of degradatio n was referred to as the gel-sol transition. The position of the trans ition depended on the rate constants modeling the effect of units subs titution. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.