Chain behavior in a polydisperse brush: depression of critical fluctuations

Abstract

Anomalous end-to-end distance fluctuations ∼ N 2 characteristic of a monodisperse brush are strongly depressed even in the case of relatively narrow continuous chain length distribution. The magnitude of fluctuation for a typical chain decreases with increasing inhomogeneity parameter q=N w /N n -1 according to a power law ∼ q -1/2 , implying an analogy between q and the deviation from the critical point. A q-N diagram showing different regimes of asymptotic behavior is constructed