Comment on “Relating Chain Conformations to Extensional Stress in Entangled Polymer Melts”

Journal Article · Thu Jan 31 23:00:00 EST 2019 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.059803· OSTI ID:1567497

Xu, Wen-Sheng ^[1]; Lam, Christopher N. ^[1]; Carrillo, Jan-Michael Y. ^[2]; Sumpter, Bobby G. ^[2]; Wang, Yangyang ^[1]

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1. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for Nanophase Materials Science (CNMS)
2. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for Nanophase Materials Science (CNMS) and Computational Sciences and Engineering Div.

Based on nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations of entangled polymer melts, a recent Letter [1] claims that the rising extensional stress is quantitatively consistent with the decreasing entropy of chains at the equilibrium entanglement length. We point out that quite the opposite is true: the intrachain entropic stress arising from individual entanglement strands agrees with the total “macroscopic” stress under only very limited conditions.

• Research Organization: UT-Battelle LLC/ORNL, Oak Ridge, TN (Unted States); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science; USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1567497
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 122; ISSN 0031-9007; ISSN PRLTAO
• Publisher: American Physical Society (APS)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

Physics