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Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science pp 6810–6833Cite as

Polymer Physics

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Definition of the Subject

Physics is uniquely endowed among the sciences with complete freedom from restriction to any particular domain of the physical world. It is able toturn its particular outlook on the scientific program and its special set of experimental and theoretical tools to most material phenomena. In particularit is not limited to any particular length scale, but is sensitive to the emergence of new structures and processes of any size. So macromolecularscience, born of the chemistry of the early 20th century, soon gave rise to a branch of physics that seeks to understand the special phenomena ofpolymer molecules and polymeric matter. Polymers are giant, usually linear molecules constructed as covalently-bonded chains of identical units, ormonomers. Individual polymer molecules may contain hundreds or even millions of monomers . Initiallydisfavored by an organic chemistry community that prized exactitude, polymers were largely ignored since their...

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Abbreviations

R :

Radius of gyration of a polymer chain

N, M :

Degree of polymerization or number of monomers in a polymer chain, molecular weight.

?:

The screening length or correlation length in semi-dilute polymer solutions; the length over which local density is dominated by a single chain.

\( { N_\mathrm{e} } \), \( { M_\mathrm{e} } \) :

Entanglement degree of polymerization and molecular weight.

\( { l_\mathrm{p} } \) :

Persistence length of polymer chain.

?:

“Flory” exponent of a polymer chain relating R and N so that \( { R\sim N^{\nu} } \).

S(k):

Scattering structure factor from a polymeric fluid as function of scattering vector \( { k=4\pi \sin \theta/\lambda } \) where ? is the wavelength and ? the scattering angle of the experiment.

\( { \Pi(c) } \) :

Osmotic pressure of a solution as a function of concentration c.

s ij :

Components of the stress tensor.

d, D :

Dimensions of a macromolecular object and its embedding space.

\( { \mathbf{R}(n,t) } \) :

Functional description of a macromolecular contour as functions of monomer number n and time t.

G(t):

Time dependent relaxation modulus.

?:

Viscosity.

\( { k_\mathrm{B} } \) :

Boltzmann's constant.

?:

Flory interaction parameter between monomers of different chemistry.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. UK Polymer IRC, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

    T. C. B. McLeish

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. RAMTECH LIMITED, 122 Escalle Lane, Larkspur, CA, 94939, USA

    Robert A. Meyers Ph. D. (Editor-in-Chief) (Editor-in-Chief)

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McLeish, T.C.B. (2009). Polymer Physics . In: Meyers, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-30440-3_409

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