A measure of the polymer’s structure is the fraction, Δ, of monomer linkages that are head-tohead.
In this experiment, treatment with periodate specifically cleaves 1,2-glycol linkages,
making smaller chains. The size of the smaller chains will depend on the number of head-tohead
linkages in the particular sample of poly(vinyl alcohol), which can be estimated from the
number-average molar masses of the polymer and its cleaved products.