Polyethylene comb-like

This review deals with several types of polymer hosts that have been investigated. These include polyethylene oxide and its several modified forms, comb like polymers such as polyacrylates and inorganic polymers such as polyphosphazenes and polysiloxanes. Various instrumental techniques have been employed in the structural characterization of polymer electrolytes. The structural information obtained from methods such as Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (EXAFS), X-ray diffraction methods, vibrational spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) have also been discussed. 

Fig. 9 Illustration of possible structures of long-chain branched polyethylene. Multiple branched comb-like branching left), one 3-arm branch (Y-structure center) and two 3-arm branches (H-structure right)...

If combs represent one extreme of the topological family of branched polymers, then another extreme is given by the case of dendritic polymers, which retain a branched structure at all timescales. The study of tree-like branched architectures is also motivated by the important commercial low density polyethylene (LDPE), which has remarkable rheological properties making it suitable for many processing operations [3]. 

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