ABSTRACT
Polymers mixed with solvents, including water, are the key elements of many systems occurring in nature and technology. The Flory-Huggins theory to be discussed the cornerstone of understanding of the behavior of polymer solutions between the infinitely dilute solution in a good solvent and bulk polymer. Neutron scattering has become an increasingly important tool in the study of polymer solutions, especially nondilute solutions, owing to the possibility to create contrast among different constituents of the solution by selective isotopic labeling, usually with deuterium. The relationship of molecular structure to measurable solution properties, one can aspire to determine molecular-level characteristics such as molecular weight, the amount of charge on an ionizable polymer, or the degree of association in a polymer capable of that sort of interaction. Solvation of polymers in good solvents introduces long-range interactions among the segments owing to the fact that segments distant from one another want to maximize their solvation and therefore avoid proximate locations in space.
