Commentary on "Solid-like rheological response of non-entangled polymers in the molten state" by H. Mendil et al

We discuss the rheology experiments on classical and liquid crystal polymer melts by Mendil et al., in the light of the old and new piezorheometry experiments we have carried out on both types of melt. The mechanical behavior we have observed in the linear and non-linear regimes are independent of the melt studied (classical or liquid crystal), and of their nature (siloxane-type, acrylate-type and styrene-type). In the linear regime, the mechanical behavior of the melts presents two components: the first one is the conventional contribution. It is due to polymer chains, and is independent of sample thickness. The second one, which can be observed only when a strong interaction between the compound and the substrate exists, is associated with the glass transition. This component displays an elastic response depending on the sample thickness, and disappears at high temperature. It can be explained by assuming the presence of long-range density fluctuations, which are associated with the glass transition, and frozen at the frequencies used in the experiments. The experiments as a function of the applied strain show that the value of the elastic component decreases when the applied strain increases. This slipping transition occurs progressively, which highlights the heterogeneous nature of the anchoring. The results on the classical polymer by Mendil et al. can be considered to be consistent with ours. In contrast, their results on the liquid crystal polymer differ markedly from ours, showing that the elastic response of this sample has not the same origin.