Polymers and Theory of Numbers. I. The Single-Chain Theory of Degradation
Vikas Nanda, Raj K. Pathria · The Journal of Chemical Physics · 1959
The process of degradation of linear polymers is studied in terms of a corresponding problem in the theory of numbers. On the basis of this analogy, an exact single-chain theory is developed. Expressions for the size distribution among the various fragments and the different averages of the molecular weight are derived. It is shown that the results obtained by earlier authors from probability considerations follow as first approximations from the exact ones obtained here.