Eur. Phys. J. E 4, 419-433

Reptation and interdiffusion in polystyrene networks

T. Russ¹, R. Brenn¹, F. Abel², F. Boué³ and M. Geoghegan<sup>3

1</sup>  Fakultät für Physik, Universität Freiburg, Hermann-Herder-Straße 3, D-79104 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
²  Groupe de Physique des Solides, UMR 75-88 du CNRS et des Universités de Paris VII et VI, 2 Place Jussieu, F-75005 Paris, France
³  Laboratoire Léon Brillouin (UMR 12 du CNRS et du CEA), CE-Saclay, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France

mark.geoghegan@sheffield.ac.uk

(Received 2 August 2000 and Received in final form 6 November 2000)

Abstract
We have used helium-3 nuclear reaction analysis to measure the interdiffusion of linear polystyrene into a film of crosslinked polystyrene and the intradiffusion of polystyrene in polystyrene networks. The interdiffusion is compared with that predicted from the Kramer-Sillescu theory, and is found to be considerably faster. This is attributed to the relaxation of inhomogeneities in the network. The molecular weight and crosslinking dependence of the intradiffusion coefficients of free polystyrene chains trapped inside networks is discussed in terms of the simple tube model and provides reasonably good agreement with that predicted from reptation theory.

PACS
83.10.Nn - Polymer dynamics.
66.30.Ny - Chemical interdiffusion; diffusion barriers.
36.20.-r - Macromolecules and polymer molecules.


© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag 2001