Static properties of polystyrene in semidilute solutions: A comparison of Monte Carlo simulation and small-angle neutron scattering results

Monte Carlo simulations have been performed on a meso-scale polymer model for semiflexible chains and effective polymer-polymer interactions. Simulations were made for different chain lengths at dilute and semidilute concentrations, The correlation length and osmotic compressibility have been determined for the simulations as well as experimentally for polystyrene in d-toluene by small-angle neutron scattering (SANS), and excellent agreement is found. Interpolations of the MC scattering functions fit the SANS data in the full measured range of scattering vectors, demonstrating agreement almost down to atomic level.