A new approach to the determination of the statistical segment length of wormlike polymers

The Stockmayer-Fixman-Burchard (SFB) and the Dondos-Benoit (DB) equations have been applied to determine the unperturbed dimensions parameterK of wormlike polymers. An empirical relation between the Flory's constant and the Mark-Houwink-Sakurada (MHS) exponenta has been proposed. The values found by this equation are lower than the value 2.5×10²³ used in the case of flexible polymers and this deviation is attributed to the influence of the draining effect. From theK value and the so calculated value of , we calculate the Kuhn statistical segment length of wormlike polymers. The obtained — for a great number of wormlike polymers — statistical segment lengths are almost the same as these calculated by the Yamakawa-Fujii and the Bohdanecky methods. The molecular mass regions in which the SFB, the DB, and the MHS equations are valid are explored. A criterion for the distinction between flexible and wormlike polymers is proposed based on the way of approach to the power law.