Conformational entropy of self-avoiding polymer chains

The conformational entropy of self-avoiding polymer chains on a tetrahedral lattice is calculated with the exact enumeration method. The conformationa l entropy linearly varies with the chain length. The parameters governing t he length dependence of the conformational entropy appear to be dependent o n the temperature and the energy epsilon, which is the energy of gauche sta te relative to trans state. The second-order transition temperature T-2 dep ends mainly on epsilon. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.