TY - JOUR
T1 - Rheology of ring polymer melts
T2 - From linear contaminants to ring-linear blends
AU - Halverson, Jonathan D.
AU - Grest, Gary S.
AU - Grosberg, Alexander Y.
AU - Kremer, Kurt
PY - 2012/1/18
Y1 - 2012/1/18
N2 - Ring polymers remain a challenge to our understanding of polymer dynamics. Experiments are difficult to interpret because of the uncertainty in the purity and dispersity of the sample. Using both equilibrium and nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations we have investigated the structure, dynamics, and rheology of perfectly controlled ring-linear polymer blends of chains of up to about 14 entanglements per chain, comparable to experimental systems. Linear contaminants increase the zero-shear viscosity of a ring polymer melt by about 10% around one-fifth of their overlap concentration. For equal concentrations of linear and ring polymers, the blend viscosity is about twice that of the pure linear melt. The diffusion coefficient of the rings decreases dramatically, while the linear polymers are mostly unaffected. Our results are supported by a primitive path analysis.
AB - Ring polymers remain a challenge to our understanding of polymer dynamics. Experiments are difficult to interpret because of the uncertainty in the purity and dispersity of the sample. Using both equilibrium and nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations we have investigated the structure, dynamics, and rheology of perfectly controlled ring-linear polymer blends of chains of up to about 14 entanglements per chain, comparable to experimental systems. Linear contaminants increase the zero-shear viscosity of a ring polymer melt by about 10% around one-fifth of their overlap concentration. For equal concentrations of linear and ring polymers, the blend viscosity is about twice that of the pure linear melt. The diffusion coefficient of the rings decreases dramatically, while the linear polymers are mostly unaffected. Our results are supported by a primitive path analysis.
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U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.038301
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.038301
M3 - Article
C2 - 22400790
AN - SCOPUS:84856055452
SN - 0031-9007
VL - 108
JO - Physical Review Letters
JF - Physical Review Letters
IS - 3
M1 - 038301
ER -