Polymers Physics
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Polymers Physics Minne Paul Lettinga Forschungszentrum J¨ulich Institute for Complex Systems - 3 J¨ulich, July 2011 2 Contents 1 Ideal polymer chain 3 1.1 Definition of an ideal polymer: . .3 1.2 End-to-end vector . .3 1.3 Radius of Gyration . .5 1.4 Measuring polymer size . .6 1.5 Probability distribution . .6 1.6 Entropic spring . .8 2 Non-ideal polymers 11 2.1 Fixed valency angle polymers . 11 2.2 Persistence length of a polymer chain . 13 2.3 Kuhn segments . 15 2.4 Occupied volume . 15 2.5 Obtaining persistence length experimentally . 17 2.6 Gaussian Chain Model . 19 2.6.1 Appendix A . 21 3 Polymer Dynamics 23 3.1 Rouse model . 23 Literature i 1 2 Chapter 1 Ideal polymer chain 1.1 Definition of an ideal polymer: • no volume per joint • no interactions • Freely jointed chain The consequences of these assumptions are manyfold. For example will be no interaction also between polymer coils, so that for example with ideal polymers no rubber can be formed, see later. We start with ideal polymers because it is easy to derive a few basic features of polymers. 1.2 End-to-end vector The first feature we will calculate is the average end-to-end distance R~ between the start and ~ ~ the end of the polymer, which consists of N segments b with orientation ~ui and length b. R is a measure of the size of the polymer, but not something one could readily measure. Because R~ can point in any direction, when R~ is averaged over all these directions it will give hR~i = 0, which is the same issue as we had with the displacement of colloidal particles. As with colloidal particles the first non-zero parameter is N N N N 2 X X X X R = ( ~ui)( ~uj) = ~ui~uj; (1.1) i=1 j=1 i=1 j=1 so the average of this quantity gives 3 R j Rij rj b i a i b ri Figure 1.1: (a) Sketch of a freely jointed chain polymer. R~ shows the end-to-end vector of this polymer. (b) Illustration of a subfragment (in red) for which the end-to-end distance needs to be calculated. 4 N N N N N ~ 2 X X X 2 X X 2 hR i ≡ h~ui~uji = h~ui i + h~ui~uji = Nb = Lb; (1.2) i=1 j=1 i=1 i=1 j=1;6=i PN PN where L = Nb is the contour length of the polymer. We used here that i=1 j=1;6=ih~ui~uji = 0 because the angles of segments i and j are not correlated. The end to vector is thus given by R = phR2i = N 1=2b. From this we see that ideal chains form entangled coils. 1.3 Radius of Gyration The radius of gyration Rg is a quantity that can be more readily measured, as we will see later on. Rg is defined as the average distance to the center of mass of the object, in this case the polymer coil. As with the end-to-end vector R a straightforward average of the vector ~ PN Rg = i=1(~ri − ~rcm) would give zero, so again we have to calculate the square of the distance 1 PN of segment i with position ~r to the center of mass ~rcm = N j=1 ~rj. N N N N N 1 X 1 X X 1 X X R2 = h (~r − ~r )2i = h(~r − ~r )2i == hR~ 2 i: (1.3) g N i cm 2N 2 i j 2N 2 ij i=1 i=1 j=1 i=1 j=1 Since vecRij = ~ri − ~rj is again an end-to-end distance but now from the full polymer but from a subfragment of the polymer, see Fig. 1.1b, we can use the result EQ. 1.2 to calculate vecRij. Here we assume that the number of segments subfragment is large, i.e. ji − jj 1, which will be the case for big polymers: 2 2 h(~ri − ~rj) i = ji − jjb : (1.4) Therefore N N b2 X X R2 = ji − jj: (1.5) g 2N 2 i=1 j=1 For large N this sum can be replaced by an integral. We leave it as an exercise to show now that 1 R2 = Nb2: (1.6) g 6 So the ratio of the radius of gyration and the average end-to-end vector is 1=6 for ideal chains. 5 1.4 Measuring polymer size In the past sections we have always considered average distances between the different segments of the polymer. Suppose now that light can be scattered from each node between the segments. This would then be very similar to scattering from an ensemble of point sources as has been treated for colloids earlier. There it was shown how the structure factor of the ensemble can be obtained from light scattering: N N 1 X X S(~k) = hexp(i~k · (~r − ~r ))i; (1.7) N i j i=1 j=1 ~ ~ where k is the scattering vector with jkj = 2π/λ and ~ri are the positions of the colloids. We can now use exactly the same expression to calculated the intra-polymer structure factor taking now for ~ri the locations of the nodes, wich is also called the form factor. Doing so we immediately recognize ~ 2 2 hexp(ik · (~ri − ~rj))i = exp(−k ji − jjb =6) (1.8) This gives Z N Z N ~ 1 2 2 S(k) = di dj exp(−k ji − jjb =6 = Nf(kRg) (1.9) N 0 0 where f(x) = 2(exp −x2) − 1 + x2)=x4. For small wave vectors it can be shown that ~ ~ 2 2 S(k) = S(k)(1 − k Rg=3) (1.10) 1.5 Probability distribution The probability P (R;N) to find a chain with end-to-end vector R for a chain with N segments is given by a summation of the z possible position the chain can have before the last step from N − q to N. Of course each of these positions have there own probability P (R − bi;N − 1): z 1 X P (R;N) = P (R − b ;N − 1) (1.11) z i i=1 6 Since the chains are very long , i.e. N 1 and jRj jbij we can use the Taylor expansion to two variables, one of which is a vector: @f(r; a) f(r + dr; a + da) = f(r) + dr · f(r; a) + da (1.12) Or @a 1 1 @2f(r; a) + drdr : f(r; a) + da2 + O(3) 2 OrOr 2 @a2 We use this expansion to find an expression for P (R − bi;N − 1) in terms of P (R;N). In the case of the ideal chain da = −1 and dr = −bi so that we have now z 1 X @P (R;N) P (R;N) = fP (R;N) − b · P (R;N) − (1.13) z i Or @N i=1 1 1 @2P (R;N) + b b : P (R;N) + :::g 2 i i OrOr 2 @N 2 Let us look at each of the terms. First note that all the terms independent of i can be taken out of the summation, i.e. the first, third and fifth term. The last term can be neglected, assuming that N 1. Next, note that the second term in the equation disappears because the last step i towards the end of the polymer can come from every direction, so z X bi = 0: (1.14) i=1 1 Pz The fourth term is less straightforward to deal with. Apparently for z i=1 bibi we have z z 3 1 X 1 X X @ @ bibi : OrOr = bi,αbi,β z z @rα @rβ i=1 i=1 α,β=1 3 2 2 2 X @ @ b @ = b δαβ = 2 (1.15) @rα @rβ 3 @R α,β=1 In making the second step in the derivation we assumed that the polymer is located on a rectangular lattice. Using Eq. 1.14 and 1.15 in Eq. 1.13 results in the differential equation @P (R;N) b2 @2P (R;N) = ; (1.16) @N 6 @R2 7 Which has the solution, 3 −3R2 P (R;N) = ( )3=2 exp 2πNb2 2Nb2 3 −3R2 = ( )3=2 exp (1.17) 2πhR2i 2hR2i As you see, this is a Gaussian distribution of the probabilities. It is important to note that any model can be used to calculate hR2i, which we will use later when we discuss non-ideal polymers. 1.6 Entropic spring The probability density to find a polymer coil with an end-to-end vector length R can be directly related to the entropy of the coil, which is given by the number of ways WN (R) to obtain a coil with an end-to-end vector R: S(R) = k ln WN (R); (1.18) where k is the Boltzmann factor. WN (R) is directly related to the probability density P (R;N) to find a polymer with N monomers with a size R via some constant, so that S(R) = k ln P (R;N) + const: (1.19) 3 = − kR2=Lb + const: (1.20) 2 where we used the general result for a Gaussian chain, Eq. 1.17. Knowing the entropy of the chain, the free energy F = E − TS can be readily calculated. Since we are dealing with an ideal polymer, there are no interactions between the polymer segments so that E = 0 and F = ln P (R;N) + const: (1.21) 3kT R2 = + const: (1.22) 2Lb Now suppose that the chain is submitted to a force f~, resulting in small changedR~ of R.