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Published on: October 25, 2017
Direct observation of nonaffine tube deformation in strained polymer networks
W Pyckhout-Hintzen1, S Westermann, A Wischnewski
1Jülich Centre for Neutron Science (JCNS1) and Institute for Complex Systems (ICS1), Forschungszentrum Jülich, D-52428 Jülich, Germany.
Abstract:
We present a one-to-one comparison of polymer segmental fluctuations as measured by small angle neutron scattering in a network under deformation with those obtained by neutron spin echo spectroscopy. This allows an independent proof of the strain dependence of the chain entanglement length. The experimentally observed nonaffine square-root dependence of the tube channel on strain is in excellent agreement with theoretical predictions and permits us to exclude an often invoked nondeformed as well as affinely deformed tube.
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