Relative Viscosity

n The ratio of the kinematic viscosity of a specified solution of the polymer to the kinematic viscosity of the pure solvent. This can also be written as the ratio of the viscosities of pure solvent (η _solv) and a solute in solution (η _sol) at a concentration according to the method of calculating the Staudinder Index [η]:

$$\eta _{{\rm sol}} /\eta _{{\rm solv}} = \eta _{{\rm rel}} $$

See also Dilute-Solution Viscosity (Kamide K, Dobashi T (2000) Physical chemistry of polymer solutions. Elsevier, New York; Pethrick RA, Pethrick RA (eds) (1999) Modern techniques for polymer characterization. Wiley, New York; Staudinger H, Heuer W (1930) A relationship between the viscosity and the molecular weight of polystyrene (German). Ber 63B:222–234; Collins EA, Bares J, Billmeyer FW, Jr (1973) Experiments in polymer science. Wiley-Interscience, New York).