Intrinsic viscosity coefficient

At first glance, the contents of Chap. 9 read like a catchall for unrelated topics. In it we examine the intrinsic viscosity of polymer solutions, the diffusion coefficient, the sedimentation coefficient, sedimentation equilibrium, and gel permeation chromatography. While all of these techniques can be related in one way or another to the molecular weight of the polymer, the more fundamental unifying principle which connects these topics is their common dependence on the spatial extension of the molecules. The radius of gyration is the parameter of interest in this context, and the intrinsic viscosity in particular can be interpreted to give a value for this important quantity. The experimental techniques discussed in Chap. 9 have been used extensively in the study of biopolymers. 

Table 9.3 lists the intrinsic viscosity for a number of poly(caprolactam) samples of different molecular weight. The M values listed are number average figures based on both end group analysis and osmotic pressure experiments. Tlie values of [r ] were measured in w-cresol at 25°C. In the following example we consider the evaluation of the Mark-Houwink coefficients from these data. 

Since viscometer drainage times are typically on the order of a few hundred seconds, intrinsic viscosity experiments provide a rapid method for evaluating the molecular weight of a polymer. A limitation of the method is that the Mark-Houwink coefficients must be established for the particular system under consideration by calibration with samples of known molecular weight. The speed with which intrinsic viscosity determinations can be made offsets the need for prior calibration, especially when a particular polymer is going to be characterized routinely by this method. 

Mandelkern and Floryt have assembled the sedimentation coefficients and intrinsic viscosities for polymers of various molecular weights. As shown... 

SAN resins show considerable resistance to solvents and are insoluble in carbon tetrachloride, ethyl alcohol, gasoline, and hydrocarbon solvents. They are swelled by solvents such as ben2ene, ether, and toluene. Polar solvents such as acetone, chloroform, dioxane, methyl ethyl ketone, and pyridine will dissolve SAN (14). The interactions of various solvents and SAN copolymers containing up to 52% acrylonitrile have been studied along with their thermodynamic parameters, ie, the second virial coefficient, free-energy parameter, expansion factor, and intrinsic viscosity (15). 

Synthetic, nonionic polymers generally elute with little or no adsorption on TSK-PW columns. Characterization of these polymers has been demonstrated successfully using four types of on-line detectors. These include differential refractive index (DRI), differential viscometry (DV), FALLS, and MALLS detection (4-8). Absolute molecular weight, root mean square (RMS) radius of gyration, conformational coefficients, and intrinsic viscosity distributions have... 

Intrinsic viscosity measurements revealed a conformational transition upon heating from 26 to 40 °C, while the UV absorbance of the solution was insensitive to the change. The entropy parameters for PA were also discussed in light of the Flory-Krigbaum correlation between the second virial coefficient and theta temper-... 

The simplest indicator of conformation comes not from but the sedimentation concentration dependence coefficient, ks. Wales and Van Holde [106] were the first to show that the ratio of fcs to the intrinsic viscosity, [/ ] was a measure of particle conformation. It was shown empirically by Creeth and Knight [107] that this has a value of 1.6 for compact spheres and non-draining coils, and adopted lower values for more extended structures. Rowe [36,37] subsequently provided a derivation for rigid particles, a derivation later supported by Lavrenko and coworkers [10]. The Rowe theory assumed there were no free-draining effects and also that the solvent had suf-... 

In order to achieve a quantitative separation of the factors responsible for the temperature coefficient of the intrinsic viscosity, K should first be established as a function of temperature by carrying out measurements in -solvents having s covering the temperature range of interest. The expansion factor may then be obtained from the intrinsic viscosity measured at the temperature T in the given solvent. If Cm occurring in Eq. (10) were independent of the temperature, — should then plot linearly with 1/T, However,... 

Table XLI.—Thermodynamic Parameters Calculated from Intrinsic Viscosities and Their Temperature Coefficients...

Theory presented earlier in this chapter led to the expectation that the frictional coefficient /o for a polymer molecule at infinite dilution should be proportional to its linear dimension. This result, embodied in Eq. (18) where P is regarded as a universal parameter which is the analog of of the viscosity treatment, is reminiscent of Stokes law for spheres. Recasting this equation by analogy with the formulation of Eqs. (26) and (27) for the intrinsic viscosity, we obtain ... 

Equations (29), (30), and (10) might be applied to the elucidation of the frictional coefficient in a manner paralleling the procedure applied to the intrinsic viscosity. One should then determine/o (from sedimentation or from diffusion measurements extrapolated to infinite dilution) in a -solvent in order to find the value of Kf, and so forth. Instead of following this procedure, one may compare observed frictional coefficients with intrinsic viscosities, advantage being taken of the relationships already established for the viscosity. Eliminating from Eqs. (18) and (23) we obtain ... 

For polymer-solvent systems with known Mark-Houwink coefficients, K and a, the polymer intrinsic viscosity value [n] can be estimated from the SEC-MW data using the following equation ... 

In some cases the relationship between polymer intrinsic viscosity ([n]) and molecular weight (M) has been established for the SEC solvent and temperature conditions i.e., the empirical Mark-Houwink coefficients (2)(K,a) in the equation... 

The measurements of chain stiffness of denatured proteins are made in the presence of a strong denaturant, such as 8 M urea or 6 M GdmCl, in which peptide H-bonds are weak and peptide helices unfold (Scholtz et al., 1995 Smith and Scholtz, 1996), and the possible presence of (/-helices or /3-hairpins is not an issue in these denaturants. The careful and thorough measurements of intrinsic viscosities made by Tanford and co-workers (1968), discussed above, yield a substantially lower estimate for chain stiffness than the work of Flory and co-workers. A comparison is made by Tanford (1968) between the proportionality coefficient... 

Many polymer properties can be expressed as power laws of the molar mass. Some examples for such scaling laws that have already been discussed are the scaling law of the diffusion coefficient (Equation (57)) and the Mark-Houwink-Sakurada equation for the intrinsic viscosity (Equation (36)). Under certain circumstances scaling laws can be employed advantageously for the determination of molar mass distributions, as shown by the following two examples. 

The theoretical prediction of these properties for branched molecules has to take into account the peculiar aspects of these chains. It is possible to obtain these properties as the low gradient Hmits of non-equilibrium averages, calculated from dynamic models. The basic approach to the dynamics of flexible chains is given by the Rouse or the Rouse-Zimm theories [12,13,15,21]. How-ever,both the friction coefficient and the intrinsic viscosity can also be evaluated from equilibrium averages that involve the forces acting on each one of the units. This description is known as the Kirkwood-Riseman (KR) theory [15,71 ]. Thus, the translational friction coefficient, fl, relates the force applied to the center of masses of the molecule and its velocity... 

The next step consists of the determination of the size of the macromolecules in space. Two equivalent sphere radii can be measured directly by means of static and dynamic LS. Another one can be determined from a combination of the molar mass and the second virial coefficient A2. Similarly, an equivalent sphere radius is obtained from a combination of the molar mass with the intrinsic viscosity. This is outlined in the following sections. 

In principle all combinations of universal ratios of the four radii can be formed. A useful combination, however, is the ratio of Rj/Rwhere the two radii are related to the second virial coefficient and the intrinsic viscosity as outlined in Eqs. (21) and (22). Likewise one could form the ratio [6,142-145]... 

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