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Updated: Sep 21, 2025

Fabricating Superhydrophobic Polymeric Materials for Biomedical Applications
Published on: August 28, 2015
Practical Prediction of Heteropolymer Composition and Drift
Anton A A Smith1,2, Aaron Hall1, Vincent Wu3
1Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States.
Abstract:
Composition drift in batch polymerizations is a well-known phenomenon and can lead to composition gradients in polymers synthesized using controlled polymerization methodologies. With known reactivity ratios of monomers, the drift, and thus resultant gradient copolymer, can be designed by adjusting reagent ratios and targeted conversions. Although such prediction is straightforward, it is seldom done, likely due to the perceived difficulty and unfamiliarity for nonspecialists. We seek to remedy this by providing the communities using copolymers with an easy-to-use program called Compositional Drift which is based on the Mayo-Lewis model and the penultimate model of monomer addition, using Monte Carlo methodology. This tool can also be applied to predict composition in nondrifting polymerizations. Herein we supply this tool to the community, showcasing two recent examples of use to guide experimental design and understanding of heteropolymers (RHP).
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