Molecular Weight Distribution in Living Polymerization Proceeding with Reshuffling of Polymer Segments due to Chain Transfer to Polymer with Chain Scission, 2. Monte Carlo Simulation of Polymer Reshuffling Proceeding with Disproportionation of Chain Functionalities

The method for analyzing the reshuffling of polymer segments developed previously has been extended to systems involving the disproportionation of chain functionalities. The effect of interchain exchange reactions of this type, leading to the redistribution of chain lengths and of the chain functionalities (redistribution of living and dead chain ends), was analyzed by means of the Monte Carlo simulations. In the systems, in which no propagation occurs (monomer concentration equal to zero), a set of polymer chains containing one living and one dead end was taken as an initial material. A series of simulations were performed for systems with differing molecular weight distributions of the starting macromolecules. Uniform (no chain length distribution polymer – all chains are of the same length), Poisson, and the most probable (geometric) distributions were taken into consideration. Although the molecular weight distributions (MWDs) of functionally different chains of the same polymer were different apart from the eventual equilibrium conditions, the overall MWD was very close to that observed in analogous systems without disproportionation. The same was observed concerning MWDs in modeled polymerization systems, in which reshuffling and disproportionation accompanied propagation. Consequently, a method of estimating the ratio of rate constants of propagation and reshuffling (i. e. k_p /k _tr) in the relevant polymerization systems, using the observed polydispersity indexes, was proposed. The extent of disproportionation can be evaluated from the determined relationships of the polydispersity index and of the monofunctional chains fraction as functions of the average number of chain transformations.