A comparison of methods to determination of macromolecule crosslinking yield from gel fraction data

Three methods of linearization of sol-gel analysis data are considered. The commonly used Charlesby-Pinner (Ch-P) method often yields non-linear plots. The same data may easily be linearized by using the virtual dose concept proposed by Charlesby and Rosiak (Ch-R). Very good linear representation of the data is also obtained by plotting the sol content versus irradiation dose in the double natural logarithmic scale (LLS). All the three methods result in rather similar values of gel dose and scission-to-crosslinking ratio. At the same time, both Ch-R and LLS methods seem to be more accurate due to the higher values of the coefficients of linear correlation.