Solution properties of thermoreversible gels with multiple junctions

4 Solution properties of thermoreversible gels with multiple junctions 

Due to the association equilibrium condition, the chemical potential of solvent (7.82) and of /-functional molecules (jo/,lo/ in (7.81)) are transformed to 

The coexistence curve for a dilute phase with volume fraction to be in equilibrium with a concentrated phase with volume fraction t is given by the coupled equations 

If the higher-concentration phase lies in the postgel regime, the postgel form of v must be employed in the chemical potentials. These equilibrium conditions determine the total volume fractions and in each phase as well as the molecular distributions pj and in them. 

The osmotic pressure Jt is directly related to the solvent chemical potential through the relation (2.28) in Section 2.1. In the dilute region, this can be expanded in powers of the 

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