Monte Carlo simulation of pulsed laser polymerization

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Abstract
Pulsed laser polymerization (PLP) has been simulated using a Monte Carlo procedure. From the results of numerous simulations it has been shown that the molecular weight distribution (MWD) consists primarily of two superimposed distributions. One distribution, a relatively broad background, represents the termination reactions during the dark period; the other, a rather sharply peaked distribution, represents the termination reactions occurring as a consequence of the large number of small radicals produced during the laser pulse. The postulate that the inflection point on the sharp peak can be used to calculate that the propagation rate constant was tested and found to be accurate to within 3%. The relative position of the broad and sharp distributions on the chain length scale determines the qualitative appearance of the overall MWD and is in turn governed by the rate of photoinitiation and the relative values of termination and propagation rate constants. This explains the qualitatively different shapes of MWD which have been experimentally observed. Finally, it is shown that the occurrence of chain length dependent termination reactions precludes the use of an analytical expression to deduce quantitative or qualitative information about the termination reaction from PLP data.

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