* The reaction 2 H + O → 2 HO provides an example of chain branching. The propagation is a sequence of two steps whose net effect is to replace an H atom by another H atom plus two OH radicals. This leads to an explosion under certain conditions of temperature and pressure.
** H• + O → •OH + •O•
** •O• + H → •OH + H•
* In chain-growth polymerization, the propagation step corresponds to the elongation of the growing polymer chain. Chain transfer corresponds to transfer of the activity from this growing chain, whose growth is terminated, to another molecule which may be a second growing polymer chain. For polymerization, the kinetic chain length defined above may differ from the degree of polymerization of the product macromolecule.
* Polymerase chain reaction, a technique used in molecular biology to amplify (make many copies of) a piece of DNA by in vitro enzymatic replication using a DNA polymerase.