Influence of knot complexity on glass-formation in low molecular mass ring polymer melts

Abstract

We perform molecular dynamics simulations on a coarse-grained polymer melt to study the dynamics of glass-formation in ring polymer melts of variable knot complexity. After generating melts of non-concatenated polymeric rings having a range of minimum crossing number values, m_c, we compute the coherent intermediate scattering function, the segmental α-relaxation time, fragility, and the glass transition temperature as a function of m_c. Variation of knot complexity is found to have a pronounced effect on the dynamics of polymer melts since both molecular rigidity and packing are altered, primary physical factors governing glass-formation in polymeric materials.