Dynamics of polymers in polydisperse melts.
01 January 1987
The dynamical behavior of a mixture of two homopolymers with narrow molecular weight distribution is analyzed. The important relaxation processes for rheological properties are related to disentanglement. A molecule relaxes either by diffusing away from its entanglement constraints (reptation) or by the surrounding molecules with which it is entangled moving away (constraint release). We propose that constraint release causes not only tube renewal (the relaxation of the tube), but also tube dilation (the enlargement of the effective tube diameter).