The series expansion for the concentration dependence of relaxation times for dilute polymer solutions

Abstract

We have applied our earlier cluster theory of polymer solution viscosity to calculate the concentration (c) dependence of the polymer relaxation times for θ solutions in the steady state limit. It is shown that the concentration dependences of the polymer mode relaxation times are of the form τμ=τ0μ[1+0.5450cAμ−1/2+0.2865Ac +0.2862c2A2μ−1/2+0.8636A2c2+ ⋅⋅⋅ ], μ is the polymer mode index, τ0μ is the infinite dilution lifetime, and A is a positive constant. A value of 0.6949 is obtained for the Higgins coefficient under θ conditions.