SYNTHETIC RUBBER RESEARCH 



36.1 



tion reaction results in the formation of molecules of polystyrene by the 

 addition oi S io S in chain fashion. The result may be expressed as follows: 



NlS — > fll^l + a2'S'2 + ^3^3 + • • • + anSn 



(4) 



where each term represents a group of styrene molecules containing 1,2 • • • 

 n styrene units, n assuming values up to several thousand depending on the 



Fig. 2. — Apparatus for extracting iion rubl)er c()m[)onents from GR-S. 



reaction conditions. If Ni is very large there are of course many molecules, 

 a„ , formed of the length corresponding to each value of n. In fact, (Zi + 

 2 02 + 3 03 + • • • + nan = Ni . The tiirst term in (4) allows for the mole- 

 cules which do not react, the second represents the dimers, the third the 

 trimers, etc. 



