Polymer globule as a nanoreactor

Peculiarities of chemical reactions inside polymer globules with sizes falling in the nanometric range have been theoretically studied. The simplest example of a polymer-catalyzed bimolecular reaction between two low-molecular-weight compounds has been considered to illustrate the advantages of conducting chemical transformations in globular solution of macromolecules. Under theoretical examination of polymer-analogous transformations of polymer molecules, the possibility has been shown of reaction-induced conformational transitions between their coil and globular states. Besides, a pronounced effect has been revealed of the preferential sorption of low-molecular-weight reagents on composition of copolymers formed

Modeling of Free Radical Styrene/Divinylbenzene Copolymerization with the Numerical Fractionation Technique

The modeling approach called “numerical fractionation” has been incorporated into a PREDICI model to simulate crosslinking copolymerization. To take into account inhomogeneities of the considered copolymerization, the kinetic parameters of the model are proposed to be different for each generation of the numerical fractionation. Using this approach the chain-length dependence of termination has been incorporated into the model so that even the method of moments could be applied to study crosslinking copolymerization. The styrene/m-divinylbenzene crosslinking copolymerization at low content of crosslinker has been simulated. The chain-length dependence of termination has been found to accelerate the gel point in monovinyl/divinyl copolymerization and must be taken into account for correct description of the gel points