Star polymer topological effect

As we conjectured in the introduction, the fundamental role of topology in this approach to entangled polymer dynamics would indicate that changes to the topology of the molecules themselves would radically affect the dynamic response of the melts. In fact rheological data on monodisperse star-branched polymers, in which a number of anionically-polymerised arms are coupled by a multifunctional core molecule, pre-dated the first application of tube theory in the presence of branching [22]. Just the addition of one branch point per molecule has a remarkable effect, as may be seen by comparing the dissipative moduli of comparable linear and star polymer melts in Fig. 5. 

A feature of theories for tree-like polymers is the disentanglement transition , which occurs when the tube dilation becomes faster than the arm-retraction within it. In fact this will happen even for simple star polymers, but very close to the terminal time itself when very little orientation remains in the polymers. In tree-like polymers, it is possible that several levels of molecule near the core are not effectively entangled, and instead relax via renormalised Rouse dynamics (in other words the criterion for dynamic dilution of Sect. 3.2.5 occurs before the topology of the tree becomes trivial). In extreme cases the cores may relax by Zimm dynamics, when the surroundings fail to screen even the hydro-dynamic interactions between the slowest sections of the molecules. 

The properties of the surplus segment probability p and the effective constraint coordination number z are less well established. It seems possible that p will dep d on polymer species to some extent, since loop projection may be easier for a more locally flexible chain. Weak dependences on concentration and temf rature are likely for the same reason. On the other hand, z characterizes the topology on a fairly large scale and therefore may be virtually a universal constant. Diese however are only some speculations. Values of p and z can be established by various experiments, p from the elastic properties of networks and also from the relaxation of star polymers, z from relative relaxation rates of linear and star molecules in liquids and networks and also from measurements of diffusion rates of stars in linear chain liquids. The adequacy of the... 

Due to their non-uniform monomer density distribution arising from their topology [28,41], colloidal star polymers can be considered as effective core-corona particles with core radius [28] and softness defined as 5 = L/ L- -rc ... 

In a related work, a design of enzyme-inspired star block-copolymers with branched topologies and protein-Hke tertiary or quaternary structures was performed. These polymers incorporate hydrophihc, superhydrophobic, and polydentate metal-binding sites and self-assemble in water, their mode of assembly being controlled by the composition of the polymer. An important feature of the star block-copolymers is that they incorporate perfluorocarbons and, due to that, their emulsions in water can attract and preconcentrate O2 in the vicinity of the active metal site. Addition of Cu(II) and TEMPO leads to an effective catalytic system for oxidation of alcohols to aldehydes in water. " ... 

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