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Title: Nanorheology of Entangled Polymer Melts

Journal Article · · Physical Review Letters
 [1];  [2];  [1]
  1. Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC (United States). Department of Chemistry
  2. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

In this study, we use molecular simulations to probe the local viscoelasticity of an entangled polymer melt by tracking the motion of embedded nonsticky nanoparticles (NPs). As in conventional microrheology, the generalized Stokes-Einstein relation is employed to extract an effective stress relaxation function GGSE(t) from the mean square displacement of NPs. GGSE(t) for different NP diameters d are compared with the stress relaxation function G(t) of a pure polymer melt. The deviation of GGSE(t) from G(t) reflects the incomplete coupling between NPs and the dynamic modes of the melt. For linear polymers, a plateau in GGSE(t) emerges as d exceeds the entanglement mesh size a and approaches the entanglement plateau in G(t) for a pure melt with increasing d. For ring polymers, as d increases towards the spanning size R of ring polymers, GGSE(t) approaches G(t) of the ring melt with no entanglement plateau.

Research Organization:
Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC04-94AL85000; AC02-05CH11231; NA0003525
OSTI ID:
1430900
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1419116
Report Number(s):
SAND--2018-0707J; 660141
Journal Information:
Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 120; ISSN 0031-9007; ISSN PRLTAO
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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A practical method to account for random phase approximation effects on the dynamic scattering of multi-component polymer systems journal February 2020