| The equation of state and conformational properties of polymer chains on a regular lattice are investigated using Monte Carlo simulations. Various chain systems are studied: athermal monodisperse and polydisperse linear chains, non-athermal linear chains, and chains with various branch-structures. The chain-length varies from N = 10 to 150. In these simulations, the test-chain insertion method is employed to obtain the insertion factor in the low density regime and to determine the theta-temperature, and the repulsive wall method is used to determine the equation of state in the high density regimes.;This dissertation focuses on comparison between simulation results and predictions of Flory and Flory-Huggins mean-field theories, and Freed's n-vector model. The results indicate that the Freed's n-vector model provides the best estimate of the osmotic pressure at various densities and solvent qualities. A discrepancy exists for chains with branch structures.;Other conformational properties investigated are the end-to-end distance and the segment density profile near a repulsive wall. Scaling techniques are employed to obtain the scaling exponent... |
