Journal
JOURNAL OF PHYSICS-CONDENSED MATTER
Volume 28, Issue 6, Pages -Publisher
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/0953-8984/28/6/065101
Keywords
polymer solutions; linear and ring polymers; entanglements; molecular dynamics simulations
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Funding
- Ministry of Education, Italy [PRIN 2010HXAW77]
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In this paper, we employ molecular dynamics computer simulations to study and compare the statics and dynamics of linear and circular (ring) polymer chains in entangled solutions of different densities. While we confirm that linear chain conformations obey Gaussian statistics at all densities, rings tend to crumple becoming more and more compact as the density increases. Conversely, contact frequencies between chain monomers are shown to depend on solution density for both chain topologies. The relaxation of chains at equilibrium is also shown to depend on topology, with ring polymers relaxing faster than their linear counterparts. Finally, we discuss the local viscoelastic properties of the solutions by showing that the diffusion of dispersed colloid-like particles is markedly faster in the rings case.
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