Leibniz Institute for Polymer Research, Hohe Straße 6, 01069 Dresden, Germany.
Phys Rev Lett. 2014 Jun 13;112(23):238001. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.238001. Epub 2014 Jun 10.
The swelling equilibrium of Olympic gels, which are composed of entangled cyclic polymers, is studied by Monte Carlo simulations. In contrast to chemically cross-linked polymer networks, we observe that Olympic gels made of chains with a larger degree of polymerization, N, exhibit a smaller equilibrium swelling degree, Q ∝ N(-0.28)ϕ(0)(-0.72), at the same polymer volume fraction ϕ(0) at network preparation. This observation is explained by a desinterspersion (reorganization with release of nontrapped entanglements) process of overlapping nonconcatenated rings upon swelling.
通过蒙特卡罗模拟研究了由缠结环状聚合物组成的奥林匹克凝胶的溶胀平衡。与化学交联聚合物网络不同，我们观察到由聚合度较大的链组成的奥林匹克凝胶在相同的聚合物体积分数ϕ（0）下，网络制备时的平衡溶胀度较小，Q∝N（-0.28）ϕ（0）（-0.72）。这种观察结果可以通过溶胀时重叠非连接环的去缠结（解缠并释放未捕获的缠结）过程来解释。
