| Abstract: | A new technique to determine the reactivity ratios for monomers is described. It is based on vapor-phase chromatography and can be used for any volatile monomer. A new simplified equation was deduced which permits the direct use of the retention times to obtain the pair r1r2. The method is suggested for use in determination of the molar ratios of the chemical units in the polymer chain, regardless of chemical composition or constitution. The simplicity of this technique allows its use for monomer–polymer systems composed of any number of volatile monomers. The validity of this method was checked by using the pair methyl methacrylate–styrene. This technique is also being applied to the study of kinetics in polymerizations, since it allows the measurements of several samples taken from a single experiment. |
