ADSORPTION OF POLYMERIC FLUIDS IN MICROPOROUS MATERIALS .1. IDEAL FREELY JOINTED CHAINS

The behavior of molecular and polymeric fluids adsorbed within microporous solids plays an important role in many technologies. We apply a recently proposed statistical mechanical model which combines ideas found in two different formalisms: The polymer RISM theory of Curro and Schweizer, and the integral equations of Madden and Glandt for a simple fluid adsorbed within a random porous solid. These approaches yield a detailed systematic microscopic model for the structure of flexible polymers in microporous materials. We have obtained numerical results for the structural properties of ideal polymer melts confined within a matrix of hard-sphere obstacles.