On the absence of the completely ordered phase in the Flory model of semi-flexible linear polymers

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Abstract
It is shown that in the Flory model (1942) of semi-flexible polymer chains, an assumption of random occupation of sites is not valid for estimating the excluded volume effects when the fraction of gauche bonds is small. Thus the model is never completely ordered except presumably at T=0, and the free energy is such that it cannot give rise to a melting transition from a state of zero configurational entropy at some finite temperature. This study also casts doubts on the conclusion of Gibbs and DiMarzio (1958) that the above model exhibits a second-order phase transition, i.e. a glass transition at a finite temperature in the super-cooled phase.

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