Probabilistic considerations of the tacticity of optically active polymers

The probability theory of Markov chains used in the characterization of stereoregular polymers is extended to optically active high polymers. The degree of tacticity is expressed in terms of the transition probabilities for chain growth which is asymmetric with respect to selection of monomer unit configurations. The variation of the Bovey tacticities with the probability parameters is illustrated for the case of asymmetric, simple Markov chains. The relations between tacticity and configurational asymmetry of optically active polymers are discussed.