Van Gurp-Palmen Plot II - classification of long chain branched polymers by their topology

Abstract

Rheological data on monodisperse model-type polymers with a certain topology are available in the literature. A comparison between these series has not been made yet, mainly because the different chemical nature of these polymers inhibited a direct comparison. With the so-called reduced van-Gurp-Palmen plot (rvGP) this task has become possible and this article applies this plot to these model-type polymers. We check whether these polymers exhibit features allowing one to classify them on basis of the corresponding linear viscoelastic data. We define a characteristic point PC(Gred,c, δc) that represents the sample. By drawing all available points in rvGP-coordinates we obtain a topology map on which certain topologies cover distinct areas on this map. Unfortunately these areas overlap to some extent. For the unambiguous characterization of an unknown sample additional information is needed. We apply the topology map to metallocene poly(olefin)s.