Kinetics of laser-initiated polymerization and molecular-weight distribution of the resultant polymer

An expression is found for the function describing the molecular-weight distribution of a polymer formed by pulse-periodic initiation of polymerization. A study is made of the dependence of the molecular-weight distribution on the parameters of the initiating radiation. Experimental results are reported on the polymerization of methylmethacrylate under the influence of the second harmonic of a ruby laser. It is shown that the dependence of the reaction rate on the repetition frequency of the laser pulses and their energy is logarithmic. Viscometric measurements of the average molecular weight of the polymer samples are in satisfactory agreement with the theoretical predictions.