A Monte Carlo study of polymer network dynamics

Junction fluctuations in a polymer network are investigated by using the Mo nte Carlo method. In our calculation, a modified bend-fluctuation model is adopted. In our model, the kuhnian bond lengths are set to vary between 2 a nd 4, which is different from the lengths between 2 and root 10 of the stan dard model. It is found that the average fluctuations of junctions i and j may be expressed in the form of [Delta R-i(2)]/[r(2)](0) = a/(phi - 1) + b(phi = 3, 4, 5, 6) [Delta R(i)Delta R-j]/[r(2)](0) = a'/(phi - 1) + b'(phi = 3, 4, 5, 6) where a = 0.83, b = -0.076, a' = 0.06, b' = 0.0075, and [r(2)](0) is the me an-square end-to-end distance of two adjacent junction points and phi is th e junction functionality. Comparisons with the Cayley tree model are also m ade. Our method uses real, rather than phantom, chains, and this method can be used to investigate the dynamics of polymer network chains. (C) 2000 El sevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.