Quantifying primary loops in polymer gels by linear viscoelasticity

In polymeric gels, basically two species of cross-links exist: those contributing to the network and those that don’t. Zhou et al. (1) suggested network disassembly spectrometry to determine the content of loops—the simplest kind of network defects in gels. Although cross-links contributing to the network hold the gel together and are thus desirable, the noncontributing links (e.g., the loops on which the article focuses) are weak points in the gel. However, the plateau modulus G0 by rheology can yield comparable information, directly related to the concentration …