The graph‐like state of molecules. III. Ring‐chain competition kinetics in linear polymerisation reactions

GORDON and SCANTLEBURY's spanning‐tree model for f‐functional polycondensation processes incorporating cyclisation reactions has been tested against new exact computations (limited only by truncation error) of ring‐chain competition kinetics (i.e. back reaction = 0). The system chosen is a linear copolymerisation of alternating bifunctional units (f1 = f2 = 2). Results obtained demonstrate that, at least for linear systems, the spanningtree approximation, which requires much less computation than the exact method, is excellent.