EFFECTS OF CHAIN STIFFNESS ON EQUIVALENT SEGMENT LENGTH

A theory for the calculation of effective segment lengths of stiff polymers is developed. The theory is applicable to polymers modeled as space curves and characterized by a potential energy of the form [formula omitted] is the tangent vector of the space curve). To achieve a simple solution the constraints of differential geometry are relaxed and the calculation is restricted to chains of large contour length L. It is found numerically that the effective segment length, when normalized by the unperturbed segment length (for γ = 0), is a monotonically increasing function of γ/β3 for all values of γ and β. The implications of this for polyelectrolytes is discusse. © 1979, American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.