Effect of Volume and Temperature on the Global and Segmental Dynamics in Polypropylene Glycol and 1,4-polyisoprene

TL;DR

This study analyzes dielectric relaxation data for polypropylene glycol and 1,4-polyisoprene to understand how temperature and volume influence their relaxation dynamics, revealing thermal energy's dominant role and a specific scaling behavior.

Contribution

It demonstrates that both polymers' relaxation times are primarily governed by thermal energy and introduces a volume-temperature scaling based on an inverse power law of the intermolecular potential.

Findings

Relaxation modes are more influenced by thermal energy than volume at high temperatures.

Superposition of relaxation data when scaled by temperature and volume raised to a power.

The volume exponent suggests a relatively soft intermolecular potential.

Abstract

Published dielectric relaxation measurements on polypropylene glycol and 1,4-polyisoprene are analyzed to determine the relative effect that thermal energy and volume have on the temperature dependence of the normal mode relaxation times, and compare this to their effect on the temperature dependence of the local segmental relaxation times. We find that for both polymers at temperatures well above Tg, both relaxation modes are governed more by thermal energy than by volume, although the latter's contribution is not negligible. Such a result is consistent with an assumption underlying models for polymer viscoelasticity, such as the Rouse and tube models, that the friction coefficient governing motions over large length scales can be identified with the local segmental friction coefficient. We also show that relaxation data for both the segmental and the normal mode superimpose, when expressed as a function of the product of the temperature and the volume, the latter raised to a power. This scaling form arises from an inverse power form for the intermolecular potential. The value of the exponent on the volume for these two polymers indicates a relatively "soft" potential.