ADSORPTION OF POLYMERIC FLUIDS IN MICROPOROUS MATERIALS .1. IDEAL FREELY JOINTED CHAINS

The behavior of molecular and polymeric fluids adsorbed within micropo rous solids plays an important role in many technologies. We apply a r ecently proposed statistical mechanical model which combines ideas fou nd in two different formalisms: The polymer RISM theory of Curro and S chweizer, and the integral equations of Madden and Glandt for a simple fluid adsorbed within a random porous solid. These approaches yield a detailed systematic microscopic model for the structure of flexible p olymers in microporous materials. We have obtained numerical results f or the structural properties of ideal polymer melts confined within a matrix of hard-sphere obstacles.