Electro-optic scattering from nitrocellulose solutions

Measurements have been made of the light intensity scattered from dilute solutions of a sample of nitrocellulose ($\text{M}{}_{\mathrm{w}}\text{= 460,000}$) in acetone, both in the absence and presence of a.c. and d.c. electric fields. In an earlier study, owing to a mathematical slip and a false interpretation of an experimental parameter, other workers [5] interpreted similar measurements in terms of a freely rotating polar chain model. It is shown herein that this cannot be so and that the molecules of nitrocellulose of this order of molecular weight and in this type of solvent are better regarded as extremely stiff and extended.