Journal of Chemical Physics
1 July 2002
Volume 117, Issue 1, Pages 427-440

 © 2002 American Institute of Physics

Network viscoelastic behavior in poly(ethylene oxide) melts:
Effects of temperature and dissolved LiClO₄ on network structure and dynamic behavior 

R. Walter, J. C. Selser, M. Smith, R. Bogoslovov, and G. Piet 
Department of Physics, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV 89154-4002, USA 

(Received 21 September 2001; accepted 3 April 2002)

Abstract:
The "wet gel" model used earlier to describe the results of dynamic light scattering studies of neat poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) melts has now been successfully applied to PEO-melt/LiClO₄ solutions. The results of static light scattering and viscometry measurements along with measurements from dynamic light scattering revealed that with or without salt, the melt/gel was an overdamped system whose network diffusive relaxations were controlled by the damping liquid component of the gel. Important features of the melt/gel were significantly affected by the addition of LiClO₄. Examples of important changes included increases in the network mesh size even as "petrification" of the network by the salt rendered it less elastic. Nevertheless, for 1 K PEO melts the essential nature of the melt/gel remained unaffected. 

Article Outline:
I. Introduction and background
II. Experiment
III. Results and discussion
     A. The wet gel model
     B. Data reduction and analysis
     C. Neat PEO melts
     D. PEO-melt/LiClO4 solutions
IV. Comment
V. Conclusions
Acknowledgements
References
 

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