Collective relaxation of star polymers—A neutron spin-echo study

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Abstract
We present a neutron-scattering experiment on the static and dynamic structure factor of star polymers in dilute solution. By application of neutron spin echo, for the first time, the internal relaxation modes of such polymers could be observed directly. As the most important feature the collective dynamic response for high-functionality stars shows a pronounced de Gennes–type narrowing in the range of momentum transfer where the static structure factor in its Kratky representation exhibits a maximum. The phenomenon scales with the arm length of the star and appears to be independent of molecular weight.