The Dimension of a Single Polymer Coil

The knowledge of the intrinsic viscosity allows for the determination of the size of a single polymer coil in a dilute solution. The coil expansion and the density of the polymer coil in solution are directly given by Eqs. (4.6) and (4.7)  

The diameter d of a single polymer coil can be obtained from the density the 

7 Determination of the Polymer Coil Dimensions from the Intrinsic Viscosity 

These calculations still assume that the polymer coil in solution is a hard sphere with an even density throughout the sphere and with a fixed boundary to the solvent. For a more realistic discussion of the dimensions of a real polymer coil in solution, the reader is referred to Chap. 8. In particular, the correlation of diameter dy molar mass M and intrinsic viscosity [rj] in Eq. (7.4) is discussed in detail in Chap. 8 in the form of the Fox-Flory equation that correlates the intrinsic viscosity with the radius of gyration Rq of a polymer coil and with the molar mass  

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The knowledge of the dimensions of a single polymer coil allows for the calculation of the solution volume filled with polymer. A matter of particular interest is the polymer concentration where the solution is completely filled with polymer coils and the coils start to interpenetrate as shown in Fig. 7.1. 

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