Intrinsic viscosity determination by ‘single-point’ and ‘double-point’ equations

Abstract

"Single-point" equations used for intrinsic viscosity determination are greatly used when working with synthetic polymer solution systems. In this work we have applied them to a biological macromolecule in a bovine serum albumin (BSA)/water system. Almost all single-point equations are available and errors can be lowered. However, we have detected a systematic bias in the estimations provided by "single-point" methods. To overcome it we propose a "double-point" method which gives lower estimation errors for this system. This novel method is not system specific and could be applied to other polymeric solution.