| Issue |
Europhys. Lett.
Volume 72, Number 6, December 2005
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Page(s) | 1039 - 1044 | |
| Section | Interdisciplinary physics and related areas of science and technology | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/epl/i2005-10338-1 | |
| Published online | 18 November 2005 | |
Contour length fluctuations in polymer melts: A direct molecular proof
1
Institut für Festkörperforschung, Forschungszentrum Jülich - 52425 Jülich, Germany
2
Institut Laue-Langevin - B.P. 156X, Avenue des Martyrs 38042 Grenoble Cedex 9, France
Corresponding author: m.zamponi@fz-juelich.de
Received:
1
September
2005
Accepted:
20
October
2005
In entangled polymer melts, contour length fluctuations are supposed to lift the chain confinement starting from the chain ends. Using neutron spin echo spectroscopy on polyethylene chains of intermediate length, where only the center part is labeled, allows us to separate the contribution of contour length fluctuations to the dynamic structure factor and thereby explicitly prove the effect on a molecular level. While a corresponding fully labeled chain shows the relaxation by contour length fluctuations additional to the primary relaxation, the data of the center-labeled chain, where the visibility of the fluctuations is switched off, is in excellent agreement with results for a nearly infinite long chain, where contour length fluctuations are known to be negligible.
PACS: 83.80.Sg – Polymer melts / 61.12.Ex – Neutron scattering (including small-angle scattering)
© EDP Sciences, 2005
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