ELASTICITY OF C-ASTERISK-GELS

A junction affine network model is solved for chains following a Redne r-des Cloizeaux distribution. In a gel at c the network strands behav e as isolated chains. In a good solvent their elastic properties canno t be obtained from Gaussian statistics as in the classical models of r ubber elasticity. Instead the Redner-des Cloizeaux distribution is emp loyed, which is known to be an excellent approximation to the end-to-e nd distance distribution of flexible polymer chains in a good solvent. The implications of using non-linear entropic springs, the role of fl uctuations and the quality of the affine approximation are worked out for a Flory-Rehner model. The applicability to swollen networks and th e elasticity of two dimensional c-gels are briefly discussed.