ABSTRACT

The Flory-Stockmayer model [1] provides the simplest kinetic scheme of polyfunctional polymerization. Although the model has been criticized often for its oversimplification of the network structure, the model survived and is considered to correspond to the ideal state of the network structure. Gordon [2] has applied Good’s theory [3] of the cascade process to calculate the statistical quantities of randomly branched polymers described by the Flory-Stockmayer model. His method has an advantage over the previous methods of reducing the combinatorial argument to the joint probability-generating function formulated by Good. Here a simple algebraic procedure yields the statistical parameters of the system without knowing an explicit expression for the molecular weight distribution.