A transient network of telechelic polymers and microspheres: structure and rheology

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Abstract
We study the structure and dynamics of a transient network composed of droplets of microemulsion connected by telechelic polymers. The polymer induces a bridging attraction between droplets without changing their shape. A viscoelastic behaviour is induced in the initially liquid solution, characterized in the linear regime by a stretched-exponential stress relaxation. We analyse this relaxation in the light of classical theories of transient networks. The role of the elastic reorganizations in the deformed network is emphasized. In the non-linear regime, a fast relaxation dynamics is followed by a second one having the same rate as that in the linear regime. This behaviour, in step strain experiments, should induce a non-monotonic behaviour in the elastic component of the stress for a constant shear rate. However, we obtain in this case a singularity in the flow curve very different from the one observed in other systems, that we interpret in terms of fracture behaviour.
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