Statistics of macromolecular solutions trapped in small pores

We analyse the theoretical behaviour of macromolecular chains dissolved in a good solvent, and confined into tubes (or slits) of diameter D comparable to the coil radius. The repulsive interactions between monomers are taken into account by a scaling method which goes beyond the usual Flory Huggins approach. For the slit problem, we find five different regimes (depending on the concentration C and on the diameter D) with smooth cross-overs at all boundaries. For the tube problem, one of these regimes disappears and two cross-over lines merge, giving rise to a line of stronger discontinuity. This is related to the fact that, when D decreases down to the monomer size, different coils cannot overlap each other at all. For all regimes that thermodynamic properties, the local correlations and the overall chain size are estimated. The scaling arguments, however, predict only the power laws (in C and D) for all these quantities, and do not give precise numerical coefficients.