Thermodynamic Effects on Internal Relaxation in Diblock Copolymers

N. Boudenne; S. H. Anastasiadis; G. Fytas; M. Xenidou; N. Hadjichristidis; A. N. Semenov; G. Fleischer

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.77.506

Thermodynamic Effects on Internal Relaxation in Diblock Copolymers

N. Boudenne, S. H. Anastasiadis, G. Fytas, M. Xenidou, N. Hadjichristidis, A. N. Semenov, and G. Fleischer

Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 506 – Published 15 July 1996

Abstract

The dynamics of order parameter fluctuations has been investigated near the maximum of the static structure factor for semidilute solutions in a neutral good solvent of a very high molecular weight diblock copolymer. The effect of the proximity to the disorder-to-order transition (ODT) was evident both in the static light scattering intensity and in the internal relaxation by increasing the copolymer concentration up to $φ_{ODT}$ . An extra relaxation was also observed which can be attributed to curvilinear Rouse motion of the blocks between entanglements inside their tubes.

Received 6 December 1995

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.77.506

Authors & Affiliations

N. Boudenne¹, S. H. Anastasiadis^1,2, G. Fytas¹, M. Xenidou³, N. Hadjichristidis^3,1, A. N. Semenov⁴, and G. Fleischer⁵

¹Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas, IESL, P.O. Box 1527, 711 10 Heraklion, Crete, Greece
²Physics Department, University of Crete, 711 10 Heraklion, Crete, Greece
³Chemistry Department, University of Athens, 157 01 Zografou, Athens, Greece
⁴Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom
⁵Fakultät für Physik und Geowissenschaften, Universität Leipzig, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany