Conformational Fluctuations of Polymers in a Melt Associated with Glass Transition

N Iwaoka and H Takano, JOURNAL OF THE PHYSICAL SOCIETY OF JAPAN, 86, 035002 (2017).

DOI: 10.7566/JPSJ.86.035002

The conformational fluctuations of a glassy short polymer melt are studied by coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations and principal component analysis (PCA). The distribution of PCA eigenvalues, which measure static fluctuations of the polymers, shows a clear difference between above and below the conventional glass transition temperature T-g. The approximate conformational entropy of the polymers also indicates a transition near Tg. This is evidence that the static properties of polymers in the melt signal the glass transition.

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