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The evaluation of polyethylene chain dimensions as a function of concentration in nonadecane
Author(s) -
Westermann Stephan,
Willner Lutz,
Richter Dieter,
Fetters Lewis J.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
macromolecular chemistry and physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.57
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1521-3935
pISSN - 1022-1352
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1521-3935(20000301)201:5<500::aid-macp500>3.0.co;2-1
Subject(s) - virial coefficient , polyethylene , polymer chemistry , chain (unit) , volume (thermodynamics) , range (aeronautics) , volume fraction , neutron scattering , thermodynamics , dimension (graph theory) , excluded volume , solvent , materials science , chemistry , scattering , analytical chemistry (journal) , physics , polymer , mathematics , composite material , organic chemistry , optics , quantum mechanics , pure mathematics
This study reports the findings from a polyethylene chain dimension study as a function of concentration in concentrated solutions. The concentration range, in terms of volume fraction ( Φ ), ranged from 0.25 to 1.0. The solvent was nonadecane ( d 40 ) while the technique of assay was small angle neutron scattering at 423 K. Over the range of concentration covered 〈 R 2 〉 0 ˜ Φ 0.0 and the second virial coefficient ( A 2 ) is 0 within the limits of experimental error. Thus the unperturbed chain dimension is retained over a wide concentration range. This demonstrates that the complete screening of excluded volume effects occurs long before the melt‐state is reached; this is in accord with the prediction of the Flory‐Edwards mean‐field theory approach.