Microstructure of Sheared Entangled Solutions of Semiflexible Polymers

Overview

Journal Polymers (Basel)

Publisher MDPI

Date 2019 Apr 13

PMID 30974627

Authors

Marc Lammel

Evelin Jaschinski

Rudolf Merkel

Klaus Kroy

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

We study the influence of finite shear deformations on the microstructure and rheology of solutions of entangled semiflexible polymers theoretically and by numerical simulations and experiments with filamentous actin. Based on the tube model of semiflexible polymers, we predict that large finite shear deformations strongly affect the average tube width and curvature, thereby exciting considerable restoring stresses. In contrast, the associated shear alignment is moderate, with little impact on the average tube parameters, and thus expected to be long-lived and detectable after cessation of shear. Similarly, topologically preserved hairpin configurations are predicted to leave a long-lived fingerprint in the shape of the distributions of tube widths and curvatures. Our numerical and experimental data support the theory.

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