https://doi.org/10.1351/goldbook.P04720
A polymerization in which the growth of polymer chains proceeds by addition reactions between molecules of all degrees of polymerization.
Notes:
- The growth steps are expressed by: \[\rm{P}_{x} + \rm{P}_{y}\rightarrow \rm{P}_{x + y}\hspace{35pt} \{x\}\in \{1,2, \dots \infty\}; \{y\}\in \{1,2, \dots \infty \}\] where \(\rm{P}_{x}\) and \(\rm{P}_{y}\) denote chains of degrees of polymerization \(x\) and \(y\), respectively.
- The earlier term 'addition polymerization' embraced both the current concepts of 'polyaddition' and 'chain polymerization', but did not include 'condensative chain polymerization'.