Influence of polymer architecture on diffusion in polymers melts

Published

August 2, 2017

Author(s)

Alexandros Chremos, Cheol Jeong, Jack F. Douglas

Abstract

Recent simulations have indicated that the thermodynamic properties and the glassy dynamics of polymer melts are strongly influenced by average molecular shape, as quantified by the radius of gyration tensor of the polymer molecules, and that average molecular shape can be tuned by varying molecular topology (e.g., ring, star, linear chain, etc.). In the present work, we investigate if molecular shape is similarly a predominant factor in understanding the polymer center of mass diffusion D in the melt, as already established for polymer solutions. We find that all our D data for polymer melts having a range of topologies can be reasonably described as a power law of the topology sensitive chain hydrodynamic radius Rh . In particular, this scaling is similar to the scaling of D for a tracer sphere having a radius on the order of the chain radius of gyration. We conclude that chain topology influences molecular dynamics in as much as the polymer topology influences average molecular shape.

Citation

Soft Matter

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1039/C7SM01018D

Keywords

polymers, stars, polymer melt, dynamics

Citation

Chremos, A. , Jeong, C. and Douglas, J. (2017), Influence of polymer architecture on diffusion in polymers melts, Soft Matter, [online], https://doi.org/10.1039/C7SM01018D (Accessed April 23, 2024)