Critical kinetics near gelation

Abstract

The authors consider j-mers Ai reacting irreversibly according to the scheme Aj+Ak to Aj+k. The kinetic equations for the concentration of Aj are examined, and particularly their behaviour near gelation. Only the case Rjk=jalpha kalpha (0<or= alpha <or=1) is considered; this is a variation of the usual Flory-Stockmayer model to take excluded volume and cyclisation effects roughly into account. The effect on certain critical exponents is estimated.