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Influence of knot complexity on glass-formation in low molecular mass ring polymer melts
Fernando Vargas-Lara1, Beatriz A Pazmiño Betancourt1, Jack F Douglas1
1Materials Science and Engineering Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899, USA.
Abstract:
We perform molecular dynamics simulations on a coarse-grained polymer melt to study the dynamics of glass-formation in ring polymer melts of variable knot complexity. After generating melts of non-concatenated polymeric rings having a range of minimum crossing number values, mc, we compute the coherent intermediate scattering function, the segmental α-relaxation time, fragility, and the glass transition temperature as a function of mc. Variation of knot complexity is found to have a pronounced effect on the dynamics of polymer melts since both molecular rigidity and packing are altered, primary physical factors governing glass-formation in polymeric materials.
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