TY  - JOUR
AU  - Goossen, Sebastian
AU  - Krutyeva, Margarita
AU  - Sharp, Melissa
AU  - Feoktystov, Artem
AU  - Allgaier, J.
AU  - Pyckhout-Hintzen, Wim
AU  - Wischnewski, Andreas
AU  - Richter, Dieter
TI  - Sensing Polymer Chain Dynamics through Ring Topology: A Neutron Spin Echo Study
JO  - Physical review letters
VL  - 115
IS  - 14
SN  - 1079-7114
CY  - College Park, Md.
PB  - APS
M1  - FZJ-2015-06310
SP  - 148302
PY  - 2015
AB  - Using neutron spin echo spectroscopy, we show that the segmental dynamics of polymer rings immersed in linear chains is completely controlled by the host. This transforms rings into ideal probes for studying the entanglement dynamics of the embedding matrix. As a consequence of the unique ring topology, in long chain matrices the entanglement spacing is directly revealed, unaffected by local reptation of the host molecules beyond this distance. In shorter entangled matrices, where in the time frame of the experiment secondary effects such as contour length fluctuations or constraint release could play a role, the ring motion reveals that the contour length fluctuation is weaker than assumed in state-of-the-art rheology and that the constraint release is negligible. We expect that rings, as topological probes, will also grant direct access to molecular aspects of polymer motion which have been inaccessible until now within chains adhering to more complex architectures.
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
UR  - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000361815100010
C6  - pmid:26551826
DO  - DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.148302
UR  - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/256351
ER  -