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Forced Gelation in an Off‐Stoichiometric Copolymerization of A 2 and B 3 Monomers
Author(s) -
Lechowicz Jaromir B.,
Galina Henryk
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
macromolecular symposia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.257
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1521-3900
pISSN - 1022-1360
DOI - 10.1002/masy.201050531
Subject(s) - stoichiometry , monomer , copolymer , polymerization , polymer chemistry , kinetics , diffusion , materials science , monte carlo method , molar ratio , polymer , chemistry , thermodynamics , organic chemistry , catalysis , physics , mathematics , statistics , quantum mechanics , composite material
A step‐growth alternating copolymerization of monomers A 2 and B 3 was studied by an off‐lattice Monte‐Carlo simulation. In the random systems, i.e. with no substitution effect, the polymerization leads to gel formation provided the molar ratio of monomers is not very far from the stoichiometric one (A 2 : B 3 ≈ 3: 2) and the reaction is carried out in one batch. A substantial deviation from the stoichiometric ratio may halt gelation altogether, even at conversions of the minority functional groups approaching unity. We demonstrate that in these non‐gelling off‐stoichiometric systems, one can force the system to gel, after all, without altering the kinetics or diffusion parameters of the reaction. The clue is to carry out the reaction in steps.