DISPERSITY IN POLYMER SCIENCE

This recommendation defines just three terms, viz., (1) molar-mass dispersity, relative-molecular-mass dispersity, or molecular-weight dispersity; (2) degree-of-polymerization dispersity; and (3) dispersity. Dispersity is a new word, coined to replace the misleading, but widely used term polydispersity index for (M) over bar (w)/(M) over bar (n) and (X) over bar (w)/(X) over bar (n). The document, although brief, also has a broader significance in that it seeks to put the terminology describing dispersions of distributions of properties of polymeric (and non-polymeric) materials on an unambiguous and justifiable footing.