A scattering function of star polymers including excluded volume effects

This work presents a new model for the form factor of a star polymer consisting of self-avoiding branches. This new model incorporates excluded volume effects and is derived from the two-point correlation function for a star polymer. This model is compared with small-angle neutron scattering measurements from polystyrene stars immersed in a good solvent, tetrahydrofuran. It is shown that this model provides a good description of the scattering signature originating from the excluded volume effect, and it explicitly elucidates the connection between the global conformation of a star polymer and the local stiffness of its constituent branch.