Polymer conformation and configuration.

Treatment of polymer chains in the rotional isomeric states (RIS) approximation is developed and shown to be a realistic and useful model. The RIS model successfully accounts for those equilibrium properties dependent upon the conformational and configurational characteristics of individual polymer chains. More importantly, its adoption eliminates the need to introduce artificial chain models which, though simpler, disregard chain geometry and chemical structure, the two distinguishing features of each polymer chain. Matrix methods developed to treat the RIS model of polymer chains are briefly outlined. They are mathematically exact and applicable to chains of any length.