Branching kinetics in copolymerization of styrene with a chain-transfer monomer

In an earlier work it was shown that a random long-chain branching structure can be incorporated in polystyrene by copolymerizing styrene with a small amount of monomer that contains a chain transfer group. The use of vinylbenzylthiol as the chain transfer monomer produced a polystyrene with low number-average molecular weight and a degree of branching lower than expected. In this study polymerization kinetics were used to compute the theoretical molecular weight and degree of branching. The results show that if the chain-transfer constant of the chain transfer monomer is as high as that for vinylbenzylthiol the expected molecular weight and degree of branching will indeed be as low as those found experimentally. The theory also predicts that if the chain transfer constant is near one a highly branched bushy structure will result.