Energy maximum Terms Links

Properties of the microenvironment of soluble and cross-linked polymers were studied by the shift of bands in the electron spectra of solvatochromic reporter molecules embedded in polymer chains. Generally, the charge-transfer (CT) absorption spectra and emission spectra of a number of compounds were used to correlate solute-solvent interactions with physical and chemical properties of interest. The energy of the band maxima of these chromophores is quite solvent sensitive and is linearly correlated with empirical solvent polarity parameters. The observed shift of the maximum of the solvatochromic reporter embedded in the polymer chains, compared with a low-molecular weight analog in the same solvent, was interpreted in terms of a change in the polarity of the microenvironment of the polymer in solution. 

It can be seen that the first term in Equation (4.34) is the free energy of a phantom network, equivalent to the first term in Equation (4.32) of the constrained junction model. The second term can be thought of as equivalent to the second term in Equation (4.32), but because there is no fixed limit to the ratio of slip links Ns to permanent cross-links Nc, the maximum value of the free energy can be greater than that of the affine network that would replace V2 Nc in the first term by Nc. 

---