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Melt fracture of entangled polymers*

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Abstract.

We construct a model for a slippage plane in a sheared melt, based on a balance between reptation bridging and shear debonding. The resulting state could show up at rather low shear rates and be locally stable. But it is not easy to nucleate: the conventional entangled state is also locally stable. We propose that slippage occurs on solid walls: either at the container surface, or on dust particles floating in the melt. Slippage at solid/melt interfaces was studied (experimentally and theoretically) long ago. There is a critical stress σ* for slippage: our estimate (for strong adsorption of melt chains on the solid) gives ˜* ˜ 1/3 (plateau modulus) for typical cases. Thus, melt fracture is expected at moderate stresses, in agreement with observations by S.Q. Wang and coworkers.

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  1. Institut Curie, Centre de Recherche, 26, rue d’Ulm, 75005, Paris, France

    P. -G. de Gennes

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  1. P. -G. de Gennes
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de Gennes, P.G. Melt fracture of entangled polymers*. Eur. Phys. J. E 23, 3–5 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2007-10182-7

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