Chain dynamics and viscoelastic properties of poly(ethylene oxide)

The chain dynamics and viscoelastic properties of poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) were studied covering a wide range of molecular weights and temperatures. Two experimental. techniques were used: rheology, in order to study the large scale viscoelastic proper. ties, and neutron spin-echo (NSE) spectroscopy, to investigate the chain dynamics at the molecular level. We aimed to explore the characteristic dynamical parameters of the pure homopolymer system and describe its dependence on the polymer molecular weight and temperature. We will show that, after accounting for the molecular weigth dependence of the glass transition temperature, the dynamics observed for the different molecular weight samples can be consistently described by the Vogel-Tammann-Fulcher (VTF) temperature dependence.