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We extend our previously developed coarse-graining strategy for linearpolymers with a tunable number n of effective atoms (blobs) per chain [D'Adamoet al., J. Chem. Phys. 137, 4901 (2012)] to polymer systems in thermalcrossover between the good-solvent and the Theta regimes. We consider thethermal crossover in the region in which tricritical effects can be neglected,i.e. not too close to the Theta point, for a wide range of chain volumefractions Phi=c/c* (c* is the overlap concentration), up to Phi=30. Scalingcrossover functions for global properties of the solution are obtained byMonte-Carlo simulations of the Domb-Joyce model. They provide the input data todevelop a minimal coarse-grained model with four blobs per chain. As in thegood-solvent case, the coarse-grained model potentials are derived at zerodensity, thus avoiding the inconsistencies related to the use ofstate-dependent potentials. We find that the coarse-grained model reproducesthe properties of the underlying system up to some reduced density whichincreases when lowering the temperature towards the Theta state. Close to thelower-temperature crossover boundary, the tetramer model is accurate at leastup to Phi<10, while near the good-solvent regime reasonably accurate resultsare obtained up to Phi<2. The density region in which the coarse-grained modelis predictive can be enlarged by developing coarse-grained models with moreblobs per chain. We extend the strategy used in the good-solvent case to thecrossover regime. This requires a proper treatment of the length rescalings asbefore, but also a proper temperature redefinition as the number of blobs isincreased. The case n=10 is investigated. Comparison with full-monomer resultsshows that the density region in which accurate predictions can be obtained issignificantly wider than that corresponding to the n=4 case.

Consistent coarse-graining strategy for polymer solutions in the thermal crossover from Good to Theta solvent