Scaling Relationships of the Structural and Rheological Behavior of Tadpole Polymer Chains in Dilute Solution Systems Using Brownian Dynamics Simulations

Abstract

Tadpole polymers, also known as lasso polymers, feature molecular structures that combine a single ring with a single linear side branch, leading to distinct conformational, dynamical, and rheological characteristics compared to their corresponding counterparts, particularly pure linear and pure ring polymers. To elucidate the mechanisms underlying these distinctive behaviors, comprehensive mesoscopic Brownian dynamics (BD) simulations of dilute solution systems of tadpole polymers were conducted using a bead–rod chain model under both equilibrium and flow conditions. Three types of tadpole polymer chains were prepared by varying the ring-to-linear ratio within the tadpole chain and comparing them with the corresponding linear and ring chains. Depending on this ratio, tadpole polymer chains exhibit entirely different structural properties and rotational dynamics, both in equilibrium and under shear flow. As the linear proportion within the tadpole chain increased, the structural, dynamic, and rheological properties of the tadpole polymer chains became more similar to those of pure linear polymers. Conversely, with an increasing ring proportion, these properties began to resemble those of pure ring polymers. Based on these observed tendencies, a simple general scaling expression is proposed for tadpole polymer properties that integrates scaling expressions for both pure linear and pure ring polymers. Our results indicate that the conformational, dynamic, and rheological properties of tadpole polymers, as predicted by these simple scaling expressions, are in good agreement with the simulated values, a result we consider statistically significant.