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Updated: Jul 14, 2026

Synthesis of Cyclic Polymers and Characterization of Their Diffusive Motion in the Melt State at the Single Molecule Level
Published on: September 26, 2016
Correlation between thermal diffusion and solvent self-diffusion in semidilute and concentrated polymer solutions
J Rauch1, M Hartung, A F Privalov
1Physikalisches Institut, Universität Bayreuth, D-95440 Bayreuth, Germany.
Abstract:
We have performed measurements of thermal diffusion coefficients DT and solvent self-diffusion coefficients Dss in semidilute to concentrated polymer solutions. Solutes of different glass transition temperatures and solvents of different solvent qualities have been used. The investigated systems are in detail: poly(dimethyl-siloxane) in toluene, tristyrene in toluene, polystyrene in toluene, polystyrene in tetrahydrofuran, polystyrene in benzene, and polystyrene in cyclohexane. The thermal diffusion data are compared to our data and literature data for solvent self-diffusion coefficients. In all systems the concentration dependence of DT closely parallels the one of Dss which may be viewed as a local probe for friction on a length scale of the size of one polymer segment. This identifies local friction as the dominating parameter determining the concentration dependence of DT. Solvent quality, in contrast, has no influence on DT.
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