Tolmans Length in Polymer Solutions

A polymer solution is a remarkable example of highly asymmetric fluid coexistence. Equation (7.25) can be adapted for polymer solutions in the form 

the crossover Tolman s length in polymer solutions reads 

Since f = 0326 and 0.630, in the critical regime Tolman s length diverges at the critical point with an amplitude increasing with an increase of as 

For typical ro = 0.2nm and n =l0, the radius of gyration is about 20nm and Tolman s length at ATI 10 reaches the absolute value of about 100 nm, while the thickness of the interface is about a micron. More remarkably, in the polymer regime, even not very close to the tricritical phase separation (e.g., about 3 K away from the theta temperature, Ar = 10 ), Tolman s length for the polystyrene-cyclohexane solution is already mesoscopic, being about 50 nm, following the width of the interface of about 100 nm. In these conditions, as follows from eq 7.91, for a polymer-rich droplet with the radius 500 nm, the 

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