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Title: Effects of backbone rigidity on the local structure and dynamics in polymer melts and glasses

Journal Article · · Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. PCCP (Print)
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1039/c3cp43737j· OSTI ID:1072146

Frustration in chain packing has been proposed to play an important role in thermodynamic and dynamic properties of polymeric melts and glasses. Based on a quantitative analysis using Voronoi tessellations and large scale molecular dynamics simulations of flexible and semi-flexible polymers, we demonstrate that the rigid polymer chains have higher averaged Voronoi polyhedral volumes and significantly wider distribution of the volume due to frustration in the chain packing. Using these results, we discuss the advantage of the rigid polymers for possible enhancement of transport properties, e.g. for enhancing ionic conductivity in solid polymer electrolytes.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). National Center for Computational Sciences (NCCS)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
DOE Contract Number:
DE-AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1072146
Journal Information:
Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. PCCP (Print), Vol. 15, Issue 13; ISSN 1463-9076
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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