AI Article Synopsis
- The study develops a new method to examine how deformed polymers relax structurally over time and space using small-angle neutron scattering.
- Experiments and simulations show that, at high momentum transfer (Q) and short times, the relaxation of polymer chains follows a simple scaling law, where the rate of relaxation is proportional to Q.
- This behavior indicates that entanglement has a surprisingly minimal direct effect on how individual polymer chains relax, challenging traditional models like Rouse and tube theories.
Article Abstract
Drawing an analogy to the paradigm of quasielastic neutron scattering, we present a general approach for quantitatively investigating the spatiotemporal dependence of structural anisotropy relaxation in deformed polymers by using small-angle neutron scattering. Experiments and nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations on polymer melts over a wide range of molecular weights reveal that their conformational relaxation at relatively high momentum transfer Q and short time can be described by a simple scaling law, with the relaxation rate proportional to Q. This peculiar scaling behavior, which cannot be derived from the classical Rouse and tube models, is indicative of a surprisingly weak direct influence of entanglement on the microscopic mechanism of single-chain anisotropy relaxation.
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| http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.117801 | DOI Listing |
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