Abstract: | The electric field dependence (up to 21 kV/cm) of the steady-state and decay signals has been examined on the four well-fractionated samples of poly(γ-benzyl-L -glutamate), Glu(OBzl)]n, in N,N-dimethylformamide at 535 nm and 20°C. Together with the data previously obtained from the reversing-pulse electric birefringence Ueda, K., Nomura, M. & Yamaoka, K. (1983) Biopolymers 22 , 2077–2090], the steady-state birefringence and field-free relaxation time were analyzed by a method that takes into account the polydispersity of the chain length. The weight-average chain length, (lw), permanent dipole moment, (μw), electric polarizability anisotropy, (Δαw), and the length-independent optical anisotropy factor were evaluated. The axial translation per residue was calculated for the Glu(OBzl)]n helix, but the uncertainly involved in the weight-average molecular weights, determined from light scattering by different investigators, makes the determination of the exact conformation of Glu(OBzl)]n difficult. The contribution of Δαw to electric field orientation was found to be significant, since Δαw was approximately proportional to lw. A linear relationship also exists between μw and lw, when the Glu(OBzl)]n helix is shorter than about 1200 Å. |