Osmotic pressure of confined square lattice self-avoiding walks

Abstract

Flory–Huggins theory (Flory 1942 J. Chem. Phys. 10 51–61; Huggins 1942 J. Am. Chem. Soc. 64 2716–8) is a mean field theory for modelling the free energy of dense polymer solutions and polymer melts. In this paper we use Flory–Huggins theory as a model of a dense two-dimensional self-avoiding walk compressed in a square in the square lattice. The theory describes the free energy of the walk well, and we estimate the Flory interaction parameter of the walk to be .