Scope
The molecular origin of various rheological properties of material is studied. Depending on time and temperature, homogeneous polymeric materials exhibit typical features of glass, rubber, and viscous fluid while heterogeneous polymeric systems exhibit plasticity in addition to these features. For basic understanding of the features, the molecular motion and structures at various scales are studied for polymeric systems in deformed state. Measurements are performed of rheological properties with various rheometers, of isochronal molecular orientation with flow birefringence, and of auto-correlation of the orientation with dynamic dielectric spectroscopy. Direct observation of molecular motion is also carried out with fluorescent microscopy and molecular simulations.
