Critical phenomena and polymer coil-to-globule transition

Small-angle scattering techniques including laser light scattering (LLS), small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) have been useful tools to measure the static and dynamic properties (in terms of critical fluctuations) of fluids, fluid mixtures, polymer and micellar solutions, polymer blends and metallic alloys. A brief review is given of recent results in critical-phenomena experiments using small-angle scattering techniques. Topics of current interest are pointed out, and a guide to the vast literature on critical opalescence is provided. Coil-to-globule transition in polymer solutions has been a classic experimental challenge over the past decade. In order to succeed in reaching the collapsed regime, it becomes important to realize that single coil contraction of a linear polymer molecule in solution takes place in the neighborhood of phase separations. By using the recent development of a small-angle light-scattering spectrometer and by taking advantage of a successful polymer fractionation experiment, the transition behavior of linear polystyrene in cyclohexane from the Θ state to the collapsed regime can be characterized based on both the radius of gyration and the hydrodynamic radius.