Polymerization is outstanding among chemical reaction processes due to its importance
for technical applications as well as for an understanding of complex processes in living
matters. In this thesis, we have studied the conformational dynamics of linear homopolymers, which undergo chain-growth
polymerization. Such situations are of importance, because they constitute a
large part of the technically and biologically relevant processes. Understanding the evolution of such reacting polymers necessitates the knowledge of
the conformational evolution of non-reacting polymers as well as the underlying mechanism
of chemical reactions. These two topics are both well established and have been extensively studied in physics and chemistry. The majority of studies, however, have considered the two processes separately. There are situations, where the conformational evolution of the chain and the
chemical reaction occur at comparable rates and the two aspects of dynamics of the polymer may be coupled
in several non-trivial ways. We have extended the Rouse model to cases where the polymer undergoes polymerization and studied the impact of the chain growth on the conformational properties of the chain.
