How to Quantify Properties of Polysaccharide Solutions*

The structural diversity of polysaccharides contributes to a complexity in finding universal frameworks to describe their solution properties. To resolve this issue, we utilize a scaling theory of semidilute polymer solutions based on the relationship between solution correlation length ξ=M_g^ν/BN_A^1/3 (N_A being Avogadro’s number) and the molar mass of the chain segment inside a correlation blob M_g as a function of concentration c, parameter B, and exponent n. The interaction parameter B and exponent n are determined by the solvent quality for the polysaccharide backbone on the length scale of the correlation length. The values of the B parameters are extracted from the plateaus of the normalized specific viscosity η_sp(c)/M_wc^1/(3ν-1), where M_w is the weight-average molecular weight of the polymer chain. We expand the scaling approach to the entangled solution regime and calculate the chain packing parameter P_e. The set {B,P_e} uniquely expresses the properties of polysaccharides/solvent pairs in different concentration regimes. This information is used to construct a universal diagram of states for this class of polymers.