Microscopic Structure, Conformation, and Dynamics of Ring and Linear Poly(ethylene oxide) Melts from Detailed Atomistic Molecular Dynamics Simulations: Dependence on Chain Length and Direct Comparison with Experimental Data

We present results from very long (on the order of several microseconds) atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) simura'tions for the density, microscopic structure, conformation, and local and segmental dynamics of pure, strictly monodisperse ring and linear poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) melts, ranging in molar mass from similar to 5300 to similar to 20 000 g/mol. The MD results are compared with recent experimental data for the chain center-of-mass self-diffusion coefficient and the normalized single-chain dynamic structure factor obtained from small-angle neutron scattering, neutron spin echo, and pulse-field gradient NMR, and remarkable qualitative and quantitative agreement is observed, despite certain subtle disagreements in important details regarding mainly internal ring motion (loop dynamics). A detailed normal-mode analysis allowed us to check the degree of consistency of ring PEO melt dynamics with the ring Rouse model and indicated a strong reduction of the normalized mode amplitudes for the smaller mode numbers (compared to the Rouse model scaling), combined with an undisturbed spectrum of Rouse relaxation rates. We have further measured the zero-shear rate viscosity eta(0) of the PEO-5k and PEO-10k rings at several temperatures and extracted their activation energies. These were compared with the activation energies extracted from the MD simulations via analysis of the temperature dependence of the corresponding Rouse relaxation times of the two rings in the same temperature range.