Localization of chain dynamics in entangled polymer melts

Cooperative Dynamics of Highly Entangled Linear Polymers within the Entanglement Tube

We present a quantitative comparison of the dynamic structure factors from unentangled and strongly entangled poly(butylene oxide) (PBO) melts. As expected, the low molecular weight PBO displays Rouse dynamics, however, with very significant subdiffusive center-of-mass diffusion. The spectra from high molecular weight entangled PBO can be very well described by the dynamic structure factor based on the concept of local reptation, including the Rouse dynamics within the tube and allowing for non-Gaussian corrections. Comparing quantitatively the spectra from both polymers leads to the surprising result that their spectra differ only by the contribution of classical Rouse diffusion for the low molecular weight melt. The subdiffusive component is common for both the low and high molecular weight PBO melts, indicating that in both melts the same interchain potential is active, thereby supporting the validity of the Generalized Langevin Equation approach.

Anomalous Dynamics in Macromolecular Liquids

Macromolecular liquids display short-time anomalous behaviors in disagreement with conventional single-molecule mean-field theories. In this study, we analyze the behavior of the simplest but most realistic macromolecular system that displays anomalous dynamics, i.e., a melt of short homopolymer chains, starting from molecular dynamics simulation trajectories. Our study sheds some light on the microscopic molecular mechanisms responsible for the observed anomalous behavior. The relevance of the correlation hole, a unique property of polymer liquids, in relation to the observed subdiffusive dynamics, naturally emerges from the analysis of the van Hove distribution functions and other properties.

Spatial correlations of entangled polymer dynamics

The spatial correlations of entangled polymer dynamics are examined by molecular dynamics simulations and neutron spin-echo spectroscopy. Due to the soft nature of topological constraints, the initial spatial decays of intermediate scattering functions of entangled chains are, to the first approximation, surprisingly similar to those of an unentangled system in the functional forms. However, entanglements reveal themselves as a long tail in the reciprocal-space correlations, implying a weak but persistent dynamic localization in real space. Comparison with a number of existing theoretical models of entangled polymers suggests that they cannot fully describe the spatial correlations revealed by simulations and experiments. In particular, the strict one-dimensional diffusion idea of the original tube model is shown to be flawed. The dynamic spatial correlation analysis demonstrated in this work provides a useful tool for interrogating the dynamics of entangled polymers. Lastly, the failure of the investigated models to even qualitatively predict the spatial correlations of collective single-chain density fluctuations points to a possible critical role of incompressibility in polymer melt dynamics.

Cooperative Chain Dynamics of Tracer Chains in Highly Entangled Polyethylene Melts

By neutron spin echo spectroscopy, we have studied the center of mass motion of short tracer chains on the molecular length scale within a highly entangled polymer matrix. The center of mass mean square displacements of the tracers independent of their molecular weight is subdiffusive at short times until it has reached the size of the tube d; then, a crossover to Fickian diffusion takes place. This observation cannot be understood within the tube model of reptation, but is rationalized as a result of important interchain couplings that lead to cooperative chain motion within the entanglement volume ∼d^{3}. Thus, the cooperative tracer chain motions are limited by the tube size d. If the center of mass displacement exceeds this size, uncorrelated Fickian diffusion takes over. Compared to the prediction of the Rouse model we observe a significantly reduced contribution of the tracer's internal modes to the spectra corroborating the finding of cooperative rather than Rouse dynamics within d^{3}.

The relaxation dynamics of single flow-stretched polymers in semidilute to concentrated solutions

Recent experiments on the return to equilibrium of solutions of entangled polymers stretched by extensional flows [Zhou and Schroeder, Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 267801 (2018)] have highlighted the possible role of the tube model's two-step mechanism in the process of chain relaxation. In this paper, motivated by these findings, we use a generalized Langevin equation (GLE) to study the time evolution, under linear mixed flow, of the linear dimensions of a single finitely extensible Rouse polymer in a solution of other polymers. Approximating the memory function of the GLE, which contains the details of the interactions of the Rouse polymer with its surroundings, by a power law defined by two parameters, we show that the decay of the chain's fractional extension in the steady state can be expressed in terms of a linear combination of Mittag-Leffler and generalized Mittag-Leffler functions. For the special cases of elongational flow and steady shear flow, and after adjustment of the parameters in the memory function, our calculated decay curves provide satisfactory fits to the experimental decay curves from the work of Zhou and Schroeder and earlier work of Teixeira et al. [Macromolecules 40, 2461 (2007)]. The non-exponential character of the Mittag-Leffler functions and the consequent absence of characteristic decay constants suggest that melt relaxation may proceed by a sequence of steps with an essentially continuous, rather than discrete, spectrum of timescales.

Modeling of Entangled Polymer Diffusion in Melts and Nanocomposites: A Review

This review concerns modeling studies of the fundamental problem of entangled (reptational) homopolymer diffusion in melts and nanocomposite materials in comparison to experiments. In polymer melts, the developed united atom and multibead spring models predict an exponent of the molecular weight dependence to the polymer diffusion very similar to experiments and the tube reptation model. There are rather unexplored parameters that can influence polymer diffusion such as polymer semiflexibility or polydispersity, leading to a different exponent. Models with soft potentials or slip-springs can estimate accurately the tube model predictions in polymer melts enabling us to reach larger length scales and simulate well entangled polymers. However, in polymer nanocomposites, reptational polymer diffusion is more complicated due to nanoparticle fillers size, loading, geometry and polymer-nanoparticle interactions.

Segment-scale, force-level theory of mesoscopic dynamic localization and entropic elasticity in entangled chain polymer liquids

We develop a segment-scale, force-based theory for the breakdown of the unentangled Rouse model and subsequent emergence of isotropic mesoscopic localization and entropic elasticity in chain polymer liquids in the absence of ergodicity-restoring anisotropic reptation or activated hopping motion. The theory is formulated in terms of a conformational N-dynamic-order-parameter generalized Langevin equation approach. It is implemented using a universal field-theoretic Gaussian thread model of polymer structure and closed at the level of the chain dynamic second moment matrix. The physical idea is that the isotropic Rouse model fails due to the dynamical emergence, with increasing chain length, of time-persistent intermolecular contacts determined by the combined influence of local uncrossability, long range polymer connectivity, and a self-consistent treatment of chain motion and the dynamic forces that hinder it. For long chain melts, the mesoscopic localization length (identified as the tube diameter) and emergent entropic elasticity predictions are in near quantitative agreement with experiment. Moreover, the onset chain length scales with the semi-dilute crossover concentration with a realistic numerical prefactor. Distinctive novel predictions are made for various off-diagonal correlation functions that quantify the full spatial structure of the dynamically localized polymer conformation. As the local excluded volume constraint and/or intrachain bonding spring are softened to allow chain crossability, the tube diameter is predicted to swell until it reaches the radius-of-gyration at which point mesoscopic localization vanishes in a discontinuous manner. A dynamic phase diagram for such a delocalization transition is constructed, which is qualitatively consistent with simulations and the classical concept of a critical entanglement degree of polymerization.

Dynamic cross-correlations between entangled biofilaments as they diffuse

Entanglement in polymer and biological physics involves a state in which linear interthreaded macromolecules in isotropic liquids diffuse in a spatially anisotropic manner beyond a characteristic mesoscopic time and length scale (tube diameter). The physical reason is that linear macromolecules become transiently localized in directions transverse to their backbone but diffuse with relative ease parallel to it. Within the resulting broad spectrum of relaxation times there is an extended period before the longest relaxation time when filaments occupy a time-averaged cylindrical space of near-constant density. Here we show its implication with experiments based on fluorescence tracking of dilutely labeled macromolecules. The entangled pairs of aqueous F-actin biofilaments diffuse with separation-dependent dynamic cross-correlations that exceed those expected from continuum hydrodynamics up to strikingly large spatial distances of ≈15 µm, which is more than 10⁴ times the size of the solvent water molecules in which they are dissolved, and is more than 50 times the dynamic tube diameter, but is almost equal to the filament length. Modeling this entangled system as a collection of rigid rods, we present a statistical mechanical theory that predicts these long-range dynamic correlations as an emergent consequence of an effective long-range interpolymer repulsion due to the de Gennes correlation hole, which is a combined consequence of chain connectivity and uncrossability. The key physical assumption needed to make theory and experiment agree is that solutions of entangled biofilaments localized in tubes that are effectively dynamically incompressible over the relevant intermediate time and length scales.

A new insight into the conformation and melt dynamics of hydrogenated polybutadiene as revealed by computer simulations

Extensive molecular dynamics simulations of the macromolecular conformation and the melt dynamics for model polymers of different molecular weights have been carried out. The selected models are hydrogenated polybutadienes with a 2% content of ethyl branches and linear polyethylene. It will be shown that the density and chain stiffness are clearly affected by both the molecular weight and the presence of ethyl branches. Furthermore, the results obtained from the simulations on the molecular size and, more remarkably, chain dynamics, perfectly match the neutron scattering experiments performed by Zamponi et al. in hydrogenated polybutadienes. We observe a clear chain contraction and a slow dynamics for the hydrogenated polybutadiene with respect to the linear chain of the same molecular length. Using the Likhtman-McLeish definitions, the obtained values of the entanglement relaxation time (τe) and the tube diameter (a) are found to be in agreement with the available experimental data (by rheology and neutron spin echo) as well as with those obtained by the simulations. Finally, a very good agreement of diffusion coefficients as a function of the molecular weight between simulations and experiments is observed. Therefore, there exists a clear difference between the results obtained for branched and linear polyethylene, accounting for a definitive effect of the short chain branching on the conformational properties and the melt dynamics of polyolefins.