2003/10/31 by V. Krakoviack, B. Rotenberg, J. -P. Hansen
Physics and Astronomy · #cond-mat.soft
paper · pdf · doi:10.1021/jp036800o
published as J. Phys. Chem. B 108, 6697 (2004) · 13 pages, 13 figures, revtex ; revised version
arxiv created 2003/12/16 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
We use the thread model for linear chains of interacting monomers, and the ``polymer reference interaction site model'' (PRISM) formalism to determine the monomer-monomer pair correlation function hmm(r) for dilute and semi-dilute polymer solutions, over a range of temperatures from very high (where the chains behave as self-avoiding walks) to below the θ temperature, where phase separation sets in. An inversion procedure, based on the HNC integral equation, is used to extract the effective pair potential between ``average'' monomers on different chains. An accurate relation between hmm(r), hcc(r) [the pair correlation function between the polymer centers of mass (c.m.)], and the intramolecular form factors is then used to determine hcc(r), and subsequently extract the effective c.m.-c.m. pair potential vcc(r) by a similar inversion procedure. vcc(r) depends on temperature and polymer concentration, and the predicted variations are in reasonable agreement with recent simulation data, except at very high temperatures, and below the θ temperature.