title: Conformations of a Long Polymer in a Melt of Shorter Chains: Generalizations of the Flory Theorem.
abstract: Large-scale simulations of the swelling of a longN-mer in a melt of chemically identicalP-mers are used to investigate a discrepancy between theory and experiments. Classical theory predicts an increase of probe chain sizeR∼P-0.18with decreasing degree of polymerizationPof melt chains in the range of 1 <P<N1/2. However, both experiment and simulation data are more consistent with an apparently slower swellingR∼P-0.1over a wider range of melt degrees of polymerization. This anomaly is explained by taking into account the recently discovered long-range bond correlations in polymer melts and corrections to excluded volume. We generalize the Flory theorem and demonstrate that it is in excellent agreement with experiments and simulations.
authors.affiliation: Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden , Hohe Straße 6, 01069 Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lang
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of North Carolina , Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-3290, United States.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rubinstein
authors.affiliation: Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden , Hohe Straße 6, 01069 Dresden, Germany ; Institute of Theoretical Physics, Technische Universität Dresden , Zellescher Weg 17, 01062 Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: Jens-Uwe
authors.initials: JU
authors.lastname: Sommer