Schäfer gives a concise overview of the static equilibrium properties of polymer solutions. In the first part diagrammatic perturbation theory is derived from scratch. The second part illustrates the basic ideas of the renormalization group (RG). The crucial role of dilation invariance is stressed. The more efficient method of dimensional regularization and minimal subtractions is worked out in part three. The fourth part contains a unified evaluation of the theory to the one loop level. All the important experimental quantities are discussed in detail, and the results are compared extensively to experiment. Empirical methods of data analysis are critically discussed. The final (fifth) part is devoted to extensions of theory. The first three parts of this book may serve as the basis of a course. Parts four and five are hoped to be useful for detailed quantitative evaluations of experiments.

Schäfer gives a concise overview of the static equilibrium properties of polymer solutions. In the first part diagrammatic perturbation theory is derived from scratch. The second part illustrates the basic ideas of the renormalization group (RG). The crucial role of dilation invariance is stressed. The more efficient method of dimensional regularization and minimal subtractions is worked out in part three. The fourth part contains a unified evaluation of the theory to the one loop level. All the important experimental quantities are discussed in detail, and the results are compared extensively to experiment. Empirical methods of data analysis are critically discussed. The final (fifth) part is devoted to extensions of theory. The first three parts of this book may serve as the basis of a course. Parts four and five are hoped to be useful for detailed quantitative evaluations of experiments.

This book presents the "helical wormlike chain" model – a general model for both flexible and semiflexible polymer chains. It explains how statistical-mechanical, hydrodynamic, and dynamic theories of their solution properties can be developed on the basis of this model. This new second edition has been carefully updated and thoroughly revised. It includes a new chapter covering "Simulation and More on Excluded-Volume Effects", as well as the discussion of new experimental data and the application of the theory to ring polymers. The authors provide analysis of important recent experimental data by the use of their theories for flexible polymers over a wide range of molecular weights, including the oligomer region, and for semiflexible polymers, including biological macromolecules such as DNA. This is all clearly illustrated using a reasonable number of theoretical equations, tables, figures, and computer-aided forms, which support the understanding of the basic theory and help to facilitate its application to experimental data for the polymer molecular characterization.

Polymer Solutions: An Introduction to Physical Properties offers a fresh, inclusive approach to teaching the fundamentals of physical polymer science. Students, instructors, and professionals in polymer chemistry, analytical chemistry, organic chemistry, engineering, materials, and textiles will find Iwao Teraoka’s text at once accessible and highly detailed in its treatment of the properties of polymers in the solution phase. Teraoka’s purpose in writing Polymer Solutions is twofold: to familiarize the advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate student with basic concepts, theories, models, and experimental techniques for polymer solutions; and to provide a reference for researchers working in the area of polymer solutions as well as those in charge of chromatographic characterization of polymers. The author’s incorporation of recent advances in the instrumentation of size-exclusion chromatography, the method by which polymers are analyzed, renders the text particularly topical. Subjects discussed include: Real, ideal, Gaussian, semirigid, and branched polymer chains Polymer solutions and thermodynamics Static light scattering of a polymer solution Dynamic light scattering and diffusion of polymers Dynamics of dilute and semidilute polymer solutions Study questions at the end of each chapter not only provide students with the opportunity to test their understanding, but also introduce topics relevant to polymer solutions not included in the main text. With over 250 geometrical model diagrams, Polymer Solutions is a necessary reference for students and for scientists pursuing a broader understanding of polymers.

Remarkable progress has been made in the last two decades in the study of concentrated polymer solutions leading to many new concepts, theories, and techniques in the field of polymer science. Any description of the theory of polymer solutions is now insufficient unless both concentrated and dilute solutions are given equal attention. This book reviews recent developments in the study of dilute and concentrated polymer solutions, emphasizing mainly the typical equilibrium and steady-state dynamic properties of linear homopolymers. The author strives to clarify the gap which still remains open between current theories and well-documented experimental results, thereby stimulating further efforts toward a more accurate understanding of polymer solutions.The book contains a collection of typical experimental data and their comparison with current theories, molecular or phenomenological, a summary of recent advances in the physics of concentrated polymer solutions and melts, and an elementary account of the renormalization group theory as applied to dilute solutions. Polymer Solutions should prove invaluable as a reference work for graduate students and specialists in this field.

This book is mainly concerned with building a narrow but secure ladder which polymer chemists or engineers can climb from the primary level to an advanced level without great difficulty (but by no means easily, either). This book describes some fundamentally important topics, carefully chosen, covering subjects from thermodynamics to molecular weight and its distribution effects. For help in self-education the book adopts a "Questions and Answers" format. The mathematical derivation of each equation is shown in detail. For further reading, some original references are also given. Numerous physical properties of polymer solutions are known to be significantly different from those of low molecular weight solutions. The most probable explanation of this obvious discrepancy is the large molar volume ratio of solute to solvent together with the large number of consecutive segments that constitute each single molecule of the polymer chains present as solute. Thorough understanding of the physical chemistry of polymer solutions requires some prior mathematical background in its students. In the original literature, detailed mathematical derivations of the equations are universally omitted for the sake of space-saving and simplicity. In textbooks of polymer science only extremely rough schemes of the theories and then the final equations are shown. As a consequence, the student cannot learn, unaided, the details of the theory in which he or she is interested from the existing textbooks; however, without a full understanding of the theory, one cannot analyze actual experimental data to obtain more basic and realistic physical quantities. In particular, if one intends to apply the theories in industry, accurate understanding and ability to modify the theory are essential.