Copolymerization and the hot radical theory

A new improved linear graphic method allowing simple and reliable determination of the reactivity ratios and estimation of the adequacy of the composition equation (i.e., of the mechanism of copolymerization) is presented. After a brief description of the basic principles of the hot radical theory, a complete treatment of the binary copolymerization, with the aid of this theory, is given. A kinetic analysis shows that for the complete characterization of the copolymerization, 13 parameters are required. According to this theory, four parameters of the classical theory depend on concentration and dilution, and only one value is a real constant. The requirements of experimentation and computation for the real estimation of all 13 parameters are elaborated.