Statistics and conformations of entanglements in heterogeneous polymers

GARCÍA, NICOLÁS ARIEL; BARRAT, JEAN-LOUIS

Grenoble

Seminario; ILL General Seminar; 2018

Institut Laue Langevin

The dynamics of polymer melts and concentrated solutions depend strongly on the molecular weight of the polymer chains. The main effect of increasing molecular weight is the apparition of topological constraints between the chains called entanglements. These restrictions dramatically change physical properties such as viscosity, dynamics, rheology and mechanical behavior. Despite its importance and the effort done so far, there are still open fundamental questions about the physics of entanglements. For instance, from the theoretical point of view and due to many technical issues, building appropriates and practical approaches to simulate entanglements that help to tackle these open problems is a long-standing challenge. In this work, we show how a novel and promising coarse-graining can be successfully used to study topological constraints in systems such as polymers melts under strong confinement (thin films) and nanostructured block copolymers, both importants regarding basic research and technological applications.