Physics:Inherent viscosity

In polymer science, inherent viscosity is the ratio of the natural logarithm of the relative viscosity of a polymer to its mass concentration. Inherent viscosity is defined as

${\eta }_{inh}=\frac{\ln {\eta }_{rel}}{c}$

where c is the mass concentration of the polymer (g/dL) and ${\eta }_{rel}$ is the relative viscosity, which is defined as

${\eta }_{rel}=\frac{\eta }{{\eta }_s}$

where $\eta$ is the viscosity of the solution and ${\eta }_s$ is the viscosity of the solvent.

The unit of inherent viscosity is dL/g.