The Mark–Houwink Plot – Differentiation of Branching and Composition

The Mark–Houwink plot is a powerful tool for investigating polymer structure in solution as it clearly reveals the structure-molecular weight relationship with high sensitivity. It is generated by plotting the molecular weight (MW) against the intrinsic viscosity (IV) on a log-log graph. This application note shows how to separate the effects of a structural difference induced by a compositional change to a polymer (e.g. substitution) and the structural change induced by polymer chain branching.