The degradation of polymer molecules in solution under the influence of ultrasonic waves. Part I. Kinetic analysis

Abstract

Abstract Starting from the assumption that a polymer molecule in solution will only degrade under the influence of ultrasonic irradiation if both the resulting fragments are greater than P e /2 in size, where P e is the so‐called limiting degree of polymerization, rela tionships are derived giving the rate of degradation in terms of rate of breaking of bonds. If dB i / dt the rate of breakage of bonds in molecules of size P i , the proposed rate equations are: dB i / dt = k ( P i – P e ) n i for P i > P e and dB i / dt = 0 for P i ⪕ P e , where k is a constant characteristic of the system and n i is the number of molecules of size P i . Solutions of this equation are given for three sets of conditions.