Symbol θ. The unique temperature at which the attractions
and repulsions of a polymer in a solution cancel each
other.
A polymer solution at the Flory temperature
is called a theta (θ) solution.
At the Flory temperature
the virial coefficient B, associated with the excluded
volume of the polymer, is zero, which results in the
polymer chain behaving almost ideally.
This enables
the theory of polymer solutions at the Flory temperature
to provide a more accurate description of events than
for polymer solutions at other temperatures, even
if the polymer solution is concentrated.
It was named after the US physicist Paul Flory (1910-85).