Graft polymer solutions as sticky hard sphere colloids

We show that a solution of a graft (comb) polymer can exhibit an adhesive hard-sphere pair potential. In the present paper, static and dynamic light scattering measurements on a comb polymer at low molecular weight are performed and the results discussed in the framework of the colloidal theory for adhesive spheres. Renor-malization group calculations are directly compared with experimental data on the cooperative diffusion coefficient using the scaled concentration parameter.