| Abstract: | Viscosity, light scattering, and precipitation temperature measurements on dilute solutions of high-density and low-density polyethylene fractions have been carried out and a theory by Flory for phase equilibrium of linear polymers has been extended to branched polymer. From the results, it is shown that the entropy parameter ψ, depends on branching; a method for the determination of long-chain branching in polymer fractions is proposed combining precipitation temperature and molecular weight measurements. The method has been applied to the evaluation of long-chain branching in low-density polyethylene. |
