Intramolecular relaxation of polystyrene in a theta solvent by photon-correlation spectroscopy

Photon-correlation spectroscopy has been used to measure the diffusion coefficient D and first-mode intramolecular relaxation time τ₁ of polystyrene in a theta solvent, cyclohexane at 34.5°C. Measurements were made on five narrow fractions ($\text{M}$_w = 2.88 × 10⁶ to 9.35 × 10⁶) as a function of concentration c, in the dilute regime. D varied linearly with c, D = D_o (I + k_Dc), with D_o = (1.4 ± 0.2) × 10^?4$\text{M}{}_{\mathrm{w}}{}^{\mathrm{?(0.508\pm 0.007)}}$ cm² s^?1. Although the values obtained for τ₁ were reproducible to within 5%, no systematic variation with c was detected. The results are fitted by the relation τ₁ = (7.7 ? 0.3) × 10^?8$\text{M}{}_{\mathrm{w}}{}^{\mathrm{(1.42\pm 0.05)}}$ μs, which agrees well with the theoretical expression of Zimm for the non-draining bead-and-spring model, modified for the light-scattering case.