Local chain ordering in amorphous polymer melts: Influence of chain stiffness

TL;DR

This study uses molecular dynamics simulations to examine how chain stiffness affects static properties and melt structure in amorphous polymer melts, revealing the influence of stiffness on chain conformation and melt organization.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the static structural properties of polymer melts with varying chain stiffness through detailed simulation analysis.

Findings

Chain stiffness significantly influences chain conformation.

Static melt structure varies with different intrinsic stiffness.

Gyration radius and persistence length are affected by chain stiffness.

Abstract

Molecular dynamics simulation of a generic polymer model is applied to study melts of polymers with different types of intrinsic stiffness. Important static observables of the single chain such as gyration radius or persistence length are determined. Additionally we investigate the overall static melt structure including pair correlation function, structure function and orientational correlation function.