Abstract
A polysaccharide schizophyllan known to have a rodlike shape in solution was investigated. The system schizophyllan + water exhibited an equilibrium between isotropic and cholesteric phases. The temperature-concentration phase diagram in a temperature range 5—80°C and a concentration range 0—38.8 polymer wt% was determined. The phase diagram determined is characterized by a narrow biphasic region separating the isotropic phase from the cholesteric phase and resembles those reported by Miller and coworkers for polypeptide solutions, except that it has no broad biphasic region at low temperature. The experimental results for schizophyllan appear to favor the Flory–Ronca theory of rodlike molecules, but the data are not sufficiently detailed to draw definite conclusions.
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