On the Helical Form in Syndiotactic Poly(methyl methacrylate) Thermoreversible Gels As Revealed by Small-Angle Neutron Scattering

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The chain trajectory within thermoreversible gels of syndiotactic poly(methyl methacrylate) (sPMMA) has been studied by small-angle neutron scattering in three solvents: chlorobenzene, bromobenzene, and toluene. It is shown that in the investigated scattering domain, the chains are rigid due to their helical conformation. Theoretical fits of the scattering curves are consistent with a double-stranded helical form in which the inner helix adopts a structure already proposed by Kusuyama et al. Just after gel melting, chains take on a new helical conformation which turns out to be more stable in chlorobenzene than in the other two solvents. The reliability of the fitting procedure is also discussed.