Analysis of the Adequacy of the Representation of Entanglement Effects by Chain Loops

abstract

It is generally considered that polymer chains are intertwined or "entangled" because they cannot penetrate each other and that these entanglements are responsible for melt elastic properties. There is no physical definition of entanglement. They are considered to be binary interactions between polymer chains and represented with the looping picture or by slip-links. The interaction energy of chain loops and of two Kuhn monomers is evaluated for several polymers. It is lower than the melt thermal energy, implying that chain loops or any other binary interactions between chain segments cannot account for the properties assigned to entanglements.

keywords

LONG SATURATED CHAINS; POLYMER MELT; VISCOELASTIC PROPERTIES; ATTRACTIVE FORCES; SIMULATIONS; RELAXATION; DIMENSIONS; MOLECULES; DIFFUSION; VISCOSITY

subject category

Polymer Science

authors

Martins, JA

our authors

Groups

acknowledgements

This work was carried out under Project 3599/PPCDT-PIDDAC-PTDC/CTM/68614/2006 of the Portuguese Foundation for the Science and Technology (FCT) with funding from the POCTI and FEDER programs.

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