Nonmonotonic Composition Dependence of Viscosity upon Adding Single-Chain Nanoparticles to Entangled Polymers.

ABSTRACT: Well-characterized single-chain nanoparticles (SCNPs), synthesized from a linear polystyrene precursor through an intramolecular [4 + 4] thermal cycloaddition cross-linking reaction in dilute conditions, were added to entangled polystyrene melts at different concentrations. Starting from the pure linear melt, which is much more viscous than the melt of SCNPs, the zero-shear viscosity increased upon the addition of nanoparticles and reached a maximum before eventually dropping to the value of the SCNP melt. Molecular simulations reveal the origin of this unexpected behavior, which is the interplay of the very different compositional dependences of the dynamics of the two components. The SCNPs become much slower than the linear chains as their concentration decreases because they are threade

SUBMITTER: Pyromali C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11191425 | biostudies-literature | 2024 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature