Nonideal reversible polymerization

In addition to the physical state of reactants, it should be remembered that the ideal behavior is encountered only in the gaseous state. As the polymerization processes involve liquid (solution or bulk) and/or solid (condensed or crystalline) states, the interactions between monomer and monomer, monomer and solvent, or monomer and polymer may introduce sometimes significant deviations from the equations derived for ideal systems. The quantitative treatment of thermodynamics of nonideal reversible polymerizations is given in Ref. 54. 

More recent studies, particularly with slower hafnium complexes, have provided more detailed mechanistic insight As a step polymerization, the reaction is "nonideal" in that inequivalent reactivities for different Si-H functional groups in the system are observed. For exaniple, disilanes tend to be more reactive than monosilanes. Beyond disilane formation, the preferred dehydrocoupling reaction appears to involve addition of one silicon at a time to the growing chain, via M-S1H2R intermediates (n = 1 above). The Si-Si bond-forming reactions are also reversible. 

Both parameters are greater than unity in block polymerizations. The growing active centers preferentially add on like monomer units and the result is more or less long blocks. The shape of the curve is exactly the reverse of that of nonideal copolymerization. In the limiting case of infinitely large copolymerization parameters, homopolymer blends are formed, even at lowest conversions. 

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