The ratio of a dimensional characteristic of a macromolecule in a given solvent at a given temperature to the same dimensional characteristic in the
state at the same temperature. The most frequently used expansion factors are: expansion factor of the mean-square end-to-end distance,
;
expansion factor of the
radius of gyration
;
viscosity expansion factor
where
and
are the intrinsic
viscosity in a given solvent and in the
state at the same temperature, respectively. Expansion factors defined by different dimensional characteristics are not exactly equal, nor need they have a constant ratio as a function of
relative molecular mass.
Source:
Cite as:
IUPAC. Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 2nd ed. (the "Gold Book"). Compiled by A. D. McNaught and A. Wilkinson. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford (1997). XML on-line corrected version: http://goldbook.iupac.org (2006-) created by M. Nic, J. Jirat, B. Kosata; updates compiled by A. Jenkins. ISBN 0-9678550-9-8.
doi:10.1351/goldbook.
