| Abstract
| - We propose a self-consistent molecular theory of conformational properties of flexible polymers in melts andsolutions. The method employs the polymer reference interaction site model for the intermolecular correlationsand the Green function technique for the intramolecular correlations. We demonstrate this method on n-alkanemolecules in different environments: water, hexane, and in melt, corresponding to poor, good, and θ condition,respectively. The numerical results of the intramolecular correlation function, the radius of gyration, and thecharacteristic ratio of a polymer chain are indicative of conformational changes from one environment toanother and are in agreement with other findings in the literature. Scaling laws for the chain size with respectto the number of monomers are discussed. We show results for the intra- and intermolecular correlationfunctions and the medium-induced potential. We also extract the Kuhn length and the characteristic ratio forthe infinite chain limit for melts. The latter is compared to the experimental results and computer simulation.The conformational free energy per monomer in different solvents is calculated. Our treatment can begeneralized readily to other polymer−solvent systems, for example, those containing branched copolymersand polar solvents.
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