Glenn Dale Cooper

REDISTRIBUTION OF ORGANIC POLYMERS

The type of redistribution discussed here is that which results in a change in the molecular weight distribution of a linear polymer with no change in the average degree of polymerization in the system; thus, ring-chain equilibria will not be considered, nor will the interchange reactions of branched or cross-linked polymers. A typical example is the conversion of a polysiloxane into an equilibrium mixture of oligomers where M and D represent monofunctional and difunctional units, and only the linear species are shown. MD,M &MM + M D M + MD2M (1)