A Monte Carlo Study of the Second Virial Coefficient of Semiflexible Regular Three-Arm Star Polymers

A Monte Carlo (MC) study is made of the second virial coefficient A2 along with the mean-square radius of gyration <S2> for regular three-arm star and linear freely rotating chains of bond angles θ ranging from 109° (typical flexible chain) to 175° (typical semiflexible or stiff chain) with the Lennard–Jones 6-12 potentials between beads corresponding to a good solvent system, in the range of the total number n of bonds from 30 to 900. On the basis of the MC values of A2 so obtained, an examination is made of effects of chain stiffness on the ratio gA2 of A2 of the star chain to that of the linear one, both chains having the same n and θ. It is then found that gA2 is rather insensitive to change in θ (chain stiffness) in contrast to the cases of the ratios gS and gη related to <S2> and the intrinsic viscosity [η], respectively, which remarkably decrease with increasing θ.