Local Steric Hindrances and Conformations of Linear Polymer Molecules in Solutions. II. Generalization

Abstract

A conformational partition function of a linear, stereoregular polymer molecule in solutions is constructed by taking into account the interactions among the rotations about consecutive skeletal bonds of any desired number. By using this partition function, two formally different but essentially equivalent expressions are derived for the mean-square end-to-end distance of the polymer molecule. Both bond lengths and bond angles are assumed to be variable. Freedoms in side chains are, though formally, taken into account. Short-range interactions between the polymer molecule and solvent molecules in which it is immersed, is considered implicitly. Long-range interactions such as the so-called excluded volume effect are neglected. All kinds of end effect are also neglected.