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Dynamics of star branched polymers in a matrix of linear chains — a Monte Carlo study
Author(s) -
Sikorski Andrzej,
Kolinski Andrzej,
Skolnick Jeffrey
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
macromolecular theory and simulations
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.37
H-Index - 56
eISSN - 1521-3919
pISSN - 1022-1344
DOI - 10.1002/mats.1994.040030407
Subject(s) - polymer , linear polymer , monte carlo method , volume fraction , star polymer , excluded volume , star (game theory) , materials science , relaxation (psychology) , polymer chemistry , lattice (music) , simple cubic lattice , chain (unit) , statistical physics , thermodynamics , physics , copolymer , mathematics , composite material , astrophysics , psychology , social psychology , statistics , astronomy , acoustics
A simple cubic lattice model of the melt of 3‐arm star‐branched polymers of various length dissolved in a matrix of long linear chains ( n 1 = 800 beads) is studied using a dynamic Monte Carlo method. The total polymer volume fraction is equal to 0,5, while the volume fraction of the star polymers is about ten times smaller. The static and dynamic properties of these systems are compared with the corresponding model systems of isolated star‐branched polymers and with the melt of linear chains. It has been found that the number of dynamic entanglements for the star polymers with arm length up to 400 segments is too small for the onset of the arm retraction mechanism of polymer relaxation. In this regime dynamics of star‐branched polymers is close to the dynamics of linear polymers at corresponding concentration and with equivalent chain length. The entanglement length for star polymers appears to be somewhat larger compared with linear chains.