Glass Transition of Disentangled and Entangled Polymer Melts: Single-Chain-Nanoparticles Approach

We study the effect of entanglements on the glass transition of high molecular weight polymers, by the comparison of single-chain nanoparticles (SCNPs) and equilibrated melts of high-molecular weight polystyrene of identical molecular weight. SCNPs were prepared by electrospraying technique and characterized using scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy techniques. Differential scanning calorimetry, Brillouin light spectroscopy, and rheological experiments around the glass transition were compared. In parallel, entangled and disentangled polymer melts were also compared under cooling from molecular dynamics simulations based on a bead-spring polymer model. While experiments suggest a small decrease in the glass transition temperature of films of nanoparticles in comparison to entangled melts, simulations do not observe any significant difference, despite rather different chain conformations.