Structure factor and thermodynamics of rigid dendrimers in solution

TL;DR

This paper applies PRISM integral equation theory to analyze the structure factor and thermodynamics of rigid dendrimers in solution, successfully matching experimental data and exploring theoretical predictions at different concentrations.

Contribution

It demonstrates the effectiveness of PRISM theory in modeling dendrimer structure factors and compares theoretical predictions with experimental results.

Findings

PRISM theory accurately reproduces experimental structure factors

Theories underestimate structure factor at zero scattering vector for platelike dendrimers

Systematic differences observed between theoretical and experimental data

Abstract

The ''polymer reference interaction site model'' (PRISM) integral equation theory is used to determine the structure factor of rigid dendrimers in solution. The theory is quite successful in reproducing experimental structure factors for various dendrimer concentrations. In addition, the structure factor at vanishing scattering vector is calculated via the compressibility equation using scaled particle theory and fundamental measure theory. The results as predicted by both theories are systematically smaller than the experimental and PRISM data for platelike dendrimers.