Non-steady-state model for kinetics of free radical polymerization, 3. Direct photo-initiation

The non-steady-state kinetics of directly photo-initiated polymerization were studied theoretically. Taking account of the facts that the amount of monomer consumed in propagation is much more than that in initiation for a process producing high polymer and that the rate constant of chain termination is much larger than that of chain propagation or transfer, a few very close approximations were adopted to solve the set of kinetic differential equations of the polymerization under consideration. The inexplicit function method developed in a previous paper of this series for the derivation of the molecular weight distribution function is still valid in this work. Some numerical computation was implemented to show the tendency of free radical concentration decay and the plots of molecular size distribution.