Unexpected Role of Short Chains in Entangled Polymer Networks

The knowledge of chain entanglement is key to our understanding of the relation between the viscoelastic properties of polymeric material and their microscopic structure and dynamics. This work conducted a detailed study on the role of short chains in the entangled polymer network. A series of poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) mixtures with bimodal molecular weight distribution were selected for this study. ¹H double-quantum (DQ) NMR combined with the rheology measurement was used to investigate the entangled polymer network. We found that short-chain polymers have the potential to significantly alter the entangled polymer network formed by long-chain polymers. Additionally, both the amount of chain ends and the size of the short-chain polymer were found to have clear disentanglement influences on the entangled polymer network. Moreover, adding low molecular weight PEO to the entangle framework formed by the high molecular weight PEO, resulted in the formation of inhomogeneous entangled polymer networks. The effect of low molecular weight polymers on the entangled polymer networks in PEO melts provides a perspective on the molecular level effect of molecular weight distribution (MWD) on entanglement polymer networks.