Introduction of a Reliable Method for Determination of Intrinsic Viscosity for Any Polymer with High Precision

Intrinsic viscosities for a given polyelectrolyte in salt free and low-salt solvents reported in literatures are normally not comparable, because of inadequate valuation procedures. This article describes a theoretically justified reliable method, which is free of any model assumptions： The so called Wolf plot （logarithm of the relative viscosity as a function of polymer concentration） enables the unequivocal determination of intrinsic viscosities for all kinds of macromolecules, irrespective of whether they are chain molecules of different architecture or globular polymers, whether they are charged or uncharged. The validation of the method was examined by evaluation of the viscosities of a polyelectrolyte, some uncharged polymers of different architectures, uncharged polymer blends, and some literature data.