A comparison of chain length distributions of polymers terminally and randomly anchored to a solid/solution interface

Expressions were derived for the length distributions of polymer chains anchored to a surface by a single point. Two cases were considered. The first case was the formation of two attached chains by the attachment of a precursor (unattached) polymer at a randomly distributed position along the backbone. The second case was the attachment of precursor by end groups. These results are relevant to the properties of the stabilizing layer on latexes produced by nonaqueous dispersion polymerization.