AN ALGORITHM FOR DETERMINATION OF THE COPOLYMER MOLECULAR-WEIGHT DISTRIBUTION BY MARKOV-CHAIN SIMULATION

A simple and general algorithm, convenient for computer implementation, for calculation of the copolymer molecular weight distribution (MWD), its moments, copolymer composition, etc. from standard data has been developed describing copolymerization as a Markovian process. The algorithm is applicable for simulations of multimonomer copolymerization with monomolecular, bimolecular and mixed termination. It can be used for calculating the MWD of copolymers prepared under non-stationary conditions. Explicit formulae have been derived for the above parameters. They are exact even for low-molecular-weight oligomers. The calculation procedure involves nothing but plain matrix operations as matrix multiplication and inversion. For high-molecular-weight copolymers, even simpler dependencies that resemble those used for homopolymers can be used. A very simple numerical test has been proposed for checking their correctness.