Direct microscopic observation of the entanglement distance in a polymer melt

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Using neutron spin-echo spectroscopy and rheometry, we investigated the melt dynamics of poly(ethylene-propylene) alternating copolymers. The experiments show that beyond a certain length scale the relaxation of density fluctuations within a given chain is strongly reduced. The presence of this intermediate dynamic length scale implies the existence of a well-defined entanglement distance confirming the essential assumption of the reptation concept. Its value is found to be in excellent agreement with the entanglement distance obtained from the rheological measurement.

This publication has 18 references indexed in Scilit: