Regensburg 2010 – scientific programme

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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 3: Focus: Structure and Dynamics of Responsive Hydrogels I

CPP 3.4: Talk

Monday, March 22, 2010, 11:15–11:30, H37

on the finite-extensibility effect of a single polymer chain — •bing miao¹, thomas a. vilgis¹, stefanie poggendorf², and gabriele sadowski² — ¹Max-Planck-Institute for Polymer Research, Mainz, Germany — ²Laboratory of Thermodynamics, Department of Biochemical and Chemical Engineering, Technische Universität Dortmund, Dortmund, Germany

We investigate the finite-extensibility effect on the equilibrium size of a single polymer chain by using a Flory-type calculation. A divergence in the elastic free energy of the polymer chain is introduced to take into account the finite-extensibility. This is of particular importance when considering swelling of polymer networks which is constrained by the finite-extensibility of the polymers. From the analysis of our model, finite-extensibility effect is quantified. Compared to the results of Flory’s classic theory, finite-extensibility reduces the equilibrium size of the chain and this effect becomes important for short chains and/or when there exists strong repulsive interaction between monomers of the chain. A typical system of this type is the highly-charged and highly-crosslinked gel.