Calculation of composition heterogeneity of block and graft copolymers

The composition heterogeneity has been calculated for some block and graft copolymers. General relationships have been derived for a model of the poly(A-g-B) or poly-(A-b-B) type fulfilling the assumption of random grafting. Numerical results have been calculated for special cases of particular interest. These include a copolymer having independent molecular weight contributions from units of species A and B (a special case of which is a block copolymer) and a graft copolymer where the grafting is not accompanied by crosslinking or degradation side reactions and no homopolymer B is formed. Two other model systems represent the effects of the presence or absence of both homopolymers. For the above models, the dependence of the composition heterogeneity on the structure-determining parameters (average number of grafts in the molecule, polydispersity index of the molecular weight of the backbone and graft) is discussed. The heterogenities thus calculated are in many cases comparatively low. The composition heterogeneity of the system is in most cases increased by the presence of homopolymers.