Slow dynamics in homopolymer liquids

Abstract

Dynamic physical properties of homopolymer liquids relax through global motion of the polymer chains over their dimension. This motion is affected by a variety of factors. For high molecular weight (M) chains, the entanglement retards the global motion to affect the properties. This entanglement effect changes with the chain architecture as well as the molecular weight distribution. The effect of the chain architecture on the global chain dynamics is found also for non-entangled low-M chains as well. This article gives a very brief summary of the experimental facts and molecular interpretations for these effects. © 2009 The Society of Polymer Science, Japan.