Chain dimensions near the critical point

Biswas, Parbati and Cherayil, Binny J (1994) Chain dimensions near the critical point. In: The Journal of Chemical Physics, 100 (6). pp. 4665-4673.

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Abstract

We calculate the average end-to-end distance $\langle R^2\rangle$ of a polymer in a semidilute solution that is near the temperature $T_c$ at which phase separation occurs. The calculation is carried out within the usual canonical partition function formalism, the Hamiltonian of the system being taken to comprise a reference term, in which the chains are represented as collapsed coils, and a pertur- bation, which originates in repulsive excluded volume interactions between different monomers. The description of the reference state employs the fractional Brownian walk approach developed in an earlier paper, while the perturbation is modeled by delta function pseudopotentials. The treatment of excluded volume follows the methods developed by Edwards, Singh, and Jeffers, which make use of the equations derived for an effective step length and an effective monomer-monomer potential to determine various polymer properties. In this way, we find that near $T_c,$ R scales with chain length N as $N^{0.462}$.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	The Journal of Chemical Physics
Publisher:	American Institute of Physics
Additional Information:	The copyright belongs to American Institute of Physics.
Department/Centre:	Division of Chemical Sciences > Inorganic & Physical Chemistry
Date Deposited:	15 Nov 2006
Last Modified:	19 Sep 2010 04:29
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/7629

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