Ioanna Ch. Tsimouri

Polymer networks produced by hydrosilylation reaction between vinyl-terminated bifunctional precursor chains and f-functional cross-linkers, one of the most well-investigated end-linked polymers, have been revisited here to shed light upon the means of characterization of one of the most crucial for the network topology and mechanical property characteristics: the final extent of polymerization, p.

Bifunctional vinyl-terminated poly(dimethylsiloxane) chains are end-linked by tetrafunctional tetrakis(dimethylsiloxy)silane cross-linkers to produce irregular polymer networks with controlled stoichiometric imbalance and extent of reaction. The results are used as input to create comparative, nominally the same, three-dimensional Monte Carlo computer microstructures.

We provide a description of the Marrucci–Ianniruberto constitutive equation [ 2003 361 677−688] for the rheology of entangled polymer melts in the context of nonequilibrium thermodynamics and we properly extend it to account for a second normal stress difference by introducing a second order term in the relaxation tensor in terms of the conformation tensor.