Dresden 2003 – scientific programme

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DY: Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 32: Glasses II (joined session FV DF/DY)

DY 32.1: Invited Talk

Tuesday, March 25, 2003, 14:30–15:00, HSZ/403

Computer Simulations of the Glass Transition in Polymer Melts — •Wolfgang Paul — Institut für Physik, Johannes-Gutenberg-Universität, 55099 Mainz

Understanding the glass transition is a grand challenge problem in condensed matter that has found a lot of attention in the last 15 years. Due to their molecular complexity many polymers are known not to crystallize at all and therefore polymers are a class of materials for which the glass transition has been studied in great detail, both experimentally and through computer simulation.

In my talk I will discuss results on the kinetic glass transition in polymer melts obtained from computer simulations. A coarse-grained bead-spring type model has been used to check in great detail the applicability of the Mode-Coupling theory of the glass transition to polymers. The effects of chain connectivity can be brought out through comparison to simulations of molecular glass formers. On a chemically realistic level, 1,4 polybutadiene melts have been simulated to shed light on the importance of the presence of dihedral rotation barriers for the dynamics in supercooled poylmer melts. Simulations of this chemically realistic model of polybutadiene close to the Mode-Coupling critical temperature can be compared to experimental results on a quantitative basis.