TY - JOUR AU - Goossen, Sebastian AU - Bras, Ana AU - Pyckhout-Hintzen, Wim AU - Wischnewski, Andreas AU - Richter, Dieter AU - Rubinstein, Michael AU - Roovers, Jacques AU - Lutz, Pierre J. AU - Jeong, Youncheol AU - Chang, Taihyun AU - Vlassopoulos, Dimitris TI - Influence of the Solvent Quality on Ring Polymer Dimensions JO - Macromolecules VL - 48 IS - 5 SN - 1520-5835 CY - Washington, DC PB - Soc. M1 - FZJ-2015-01843 SP - 1598–1605 PY - 2015 AB - We present a systematic investigation of well-characterized, experimentally pure polystyrene (PS) rings with molar mass of 161 000 g/mol in dilute solutions. We measure the ring form factor at θ- and good-solvent conditions as well as in a polymeric solvent (linear PS of roughly comparable molar mass) by means of small-angle neutron scattering (SANS). Additional dynamic light scattering (DLS) measurements support the SANS data and help elucidate the role of solvent quality and solution preparation. The results indicate the increase of ring dimensions as the solvent quality improves. Furthermore, the experimental form factors in both θ-solvent and linear matrix behave as ideal rings and are fully superimposable. The nearly Gaussian conformations of rings in a melt of linear chains provide evidence of threading of linear chains through rings. The latter result has implications for the dynamics of ring–linear polymer mixtures. LB - PUB:(DE-HGF)16 UR - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000350918700040 DO - DOI:10.1021/ma502518p UR - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/188468 ER -