Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mphil-in-micro-and-nanotechnology-enterprise-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2018/paper-1/section-b/9/vi-second-occurrence/solution

This is the second printed “(vi)”, concerning solvent temperature. The coil is expected to expand, so its radius of gyration increases. For the usual upper-critical-solution-temperature behavior of polystyrene in cyclohexane, heating above the stated theta condition improves solvent quality. Effective repulsion between segments favors more expanded conformations than the ideal coil.
In a Flory–Huggins solution theory description, the theta condition corresponds approximately to interaction parameter , whereas a good solvent has a positive effective excluded volume. The asymptotic size dependence crosses toward with near for a flexible chain in three dimensions. These scaling ideas establish the expected direction, not a numerical expansion factor for a ten-degree temperature change. Its value would require measured solvent-interaction data or a calibrated crossover model.

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