2002 Volume 30 Issue 2 Pages 95-102
Viscosity and viscoelasticity were measured for potassium neutralized telechelic poly(ethylene-butylene) ionomer, CTPEB-K, as well as the original polymer, CTPEB, in a non-polar solvent of decalin in a concentration range from dilute to semidilute regime. CTPEB-K was found to associate with each other even in the dilution limit. With increasing the polymer concentration, CTPEB-K solution showed a rapid increase in viscosity due to the formation of a huge cluster and further increase in the concentration lead to formation of a viscoelatic network with finite but quite high viscosity. The time-temperature superposition could be applied for the viscoelasticity of the network and the Arrhenius type of temperature dependence was observed. The viscoelastic network exhibited two or three relaxation modes. The fast mode may be assigned to the network rearrangement and the slow mode possibly to the cluster migration in the viscous fluid.
