Thus, the prevalence of degenerative chain transfer in relation to other chain transfer mechanisms has a significant influence on the molecular weight distribution of the resulting product.
In chain polymerization processes it is observed that during the chemical reactions an active centre on a growing chain is transferred from a growing macromolecule - P• - or oligomer to another molecule (transfer agent XR) or to another site on the same molecule.
The example shows that the growing macromolecule as well as the transfer agent are consumed during this process.
However, there are also chain transfer reactions that generate new chain carriers and new chain transfer agents at the same time with significant consequences for the distribution of the (average) molecular weight distribution, the dispersity Đ and the (average) degree of polymerization of the product.
These chain transfer reactions are called degenerative chain transfer reactions and are observed, for example in RAFT-, ITRP-, or TERP- processes.