FIGURE 1.

Linear versus branched polymers. Drawings representing linear and branched polysaccharides. The volume “swept out” by a fully extended linear fiber is much greater than a fiber with an equal number of sugar units (same molecular weight) but with a “bush-like,” highly branched configuration. Because the volume occupied by a polymer molecule is a function of the radius cubed, even small increases in effective hydrodynamic size can translate into a large increase in viscosity for linear fibers.