Chemistry unit 10

A simplified condensation joins bifunctional monomers into linear chains. Each new linkage releases one water molecule. No rings or branches form, every chain has two unreacted end groups, and all monomers are incorporated into the counted species, including chains of length one. Starting from N monomer molecules, L linkages leave N-L chains. Define number-average chain length Xn=N/(N-L), and reacted functional-group fraction p=L/N. All chains are equally counted when calculating the number average.