Intercrosslink distances

This expression can be used to evaluate the intercrosslink distance dc in the nascent gel, whereby Qc = t "1 is the swelling degree of the gel upon its formation. However the intercrosslink distance d can only be considered identical with (r2)1/2 - the root mean square end-to-end distance of the elastic chains - if the overwhelming majority of the elastic chains connect first neighbor crosslinks, i.e., when the elastic chains hardly interpenetrate. 

For a given network the intercrosslink distance d should be proportional to G1/3. This is exactly what was found by neutron scattering on networks with deuterium-labelled nodules. In particular dc is the distance between neighbor crosslinks in the nascent network, the swelling ratio being Qc (Fig. 2). 

For a homologous series of networks, assuming that /is the same over the whole series, the intercrosslink distance d should obviously be a linear function of (Af Q)1/3. For unswollen networks (Q l),d should be proportional to M1 3. Ex-... 

The intercrosslink distance d is found experimentally to be linear inM0-4 instead of Mll3 for unswollen networks, as mentioned earlier. 

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