The Challenge of Characterizing Branching in Molecular Species.
Abstract
A precise definition of the concept of branching as applied to molecular species has been an objective of chemists for several decades and still remains a challenge today. Although the problem has been tackled in many ingenious ways, no completely satisfactory resolution can be said to have been achieved. The reason for this is that there are two fundamental difficulties confronting the researcher in this field. These are that (i) a universally agreed definition of branching appears to be unattainable because ultimately the concept can be defined only in intuitive terms; and (ii) any mathematical measure used to characterize the branching in molecular species must also accurately reflect the physiochemical properties are known to be associated with different orderings. In this first comprehensive survey of the field, the current state of the art in characterizing molecular branching is reviewed and the prospects of future advances are assessed.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 16, 1986
- Accession Number
- ADA170107
Entities
People
- D. R. Rouvray
Organizations
- University of Georgia