NETWORK PARAMETERS FOR CROSSLINKING OF CHAINS WITH LENGTH AND SITE DISTRIBUTION

Polymer chains are crosslinked to form a network. The chains are polydispersed, with an arbitrary distribution of weight and functionality. Crosslinks may form in three different ways: direct coupling (homopolymerization), direct coupling with propagation, and coupling through copolymerization with small monomers. Various network parameters are calculated. We give computational formulae for gel point, weight fraction soluble, weight fraction pendant, weight fraction effective, concentration of effective junctions, concentration of effective network strands, and the entanglement trapping factor. These formulae give exact values for systems that previously have only been solved using simplifying approximations. Examples show that such simplification may lead to sizable errors in the computation of network parameters.