Compression of Flexible Chain Molecules in Solution

Abstract

The compression of coiling molecules in good solvents at finite concentrations has been previously treated. However, the expressions were evaluated earlier by means of an expansion in the effective pressure acting on a coil. They are now presented in a form appropriate to include the range of reduced concentrations c/c0≥1. As an example volume ratios for polystyrene solutions in toluene are computed. They depend only slightly on molecular weight and amount to a reduction of about 30% in the most probable encompassed volume, at c/c0=1.