page_title: Polymer scattering
section_title: Applications
hierarchical_section_title: Polymer scattering / Applications
caption_attribution_description: English: affect of polymer interactions on scattering
context_page_description: Polymer scattering experiments are one of the main scientific methods used in chemistry, physics and other sciences to study the characteristics of polymeric systems: solutions, gels, compounds and more. As in most scattering experiments, it involves subjecting a polymeric sample to incident particles, and studying the characteristics of the scattered particles: angular distribution, intensity polarization and so on. This method is quite simple and straightforward, and does not require special manipulations of the samples which may alter their properties, and hence compromise exact results.
  As opposed to crystallographic scattering experiments, where the scatterer or "target" has very distinct order, which leads to well defined patterns, the stochastic nature of polymer configurations and deformations, gives rise to quite different results.
context_section_description: The main purpose of such scattering experiments involving polymers is to study unique properties of the sample of interest:
  Determine the polymers "size" - radius of gyration.
  Evaluating the structural and thermo-statistical behavior of a polymer, i.e. freely-jointed chain / freely-rotating chain etc.
  Explore the distribution of the polymers in the sample - is it truly isotropic? Or does it favor certain directions on average?
  Identifying deformations in the polymer samples and quantifying them.
  Examining complex interactions of polymers in the solution - between themselves, and between them and the solution. Such interactions may arise if the polymers are charged, corresponding to ionic interactions, This would have a significant impact on the particles behavior, and will result in a significant scattering signature.
  Studying a myriad of biological substances (e.g. DNA) that are often suspended in an aqueous solution.
caption: The change in the small-angle scattering signatures when the interactions between polymers are tuned. From left to right there is an increase in the amount of Magnesium in the solution, which alleviates the coulomb repulsion (thus reducing the order).
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