A MONTE-CARLO SIMULATION STUDY ON LONG-CHAIN COMBS

This study concerns long-chain combs in which the branch lengths are fixed, the branches are placed evenly along the backbone, and the number of branches increases linearly with molecular weight. Results have been obtained for three cases, reflecting three values of the number of segments in a branch relative to the number in the backbone between branch points. Estimates of the ratios g (= <S2> comb/ <S2> linear, where <S2> represents the mean-square radius of gyration) and h (= f(comb)/ f(linear), where f represents the friction coefficient) are compared with the predictions of a Gaussian model and with experimental data. In addition, the ratio <R2>/<S2> (where <R2> represents the mean-square end-to-end distance of the backbone) is examined, in order to make a connection with some earlier Monte Carlo results.