Inherent viscosity

Inherent viscosity is the ratio of the natural logarithm of the relative viscosity to the mass concentration of the polymer.

Inherent viscosity is defined as

η i n h = ln ⁡ η r e l c

where c is the mass concentration of the polymer (g/dL) and η r e l is the relative viscosity, which is defined as

η r e l = η η 0

where η is the viscosity of the solution and η 0 is the viscosity of the neat solvent.

The unit of inherent viscosity is dL/g.