Network viscoelastic behavior in poly„ethylene oxide... melts: Effects of temperature and dissolved LiClO4 on network structure and dynamic behavior

The ‘‘wet gel’’ model used earlier to describe the results of dynamic light scattering studies of neat poly~ethylene oxide! ~PEO! melts has now been successfully applied to PEO-melt/LiClO4 solutions. The results of static light scattering and viscometry measurements along with measurements from dynamic light scattering revealed that with or without salt, the melt/gel was an overdamped system whose network diffusive relaxations were controlled by the damping liquid component of the gel. Important features of the melt/gel were significantly affected by the addition of LiClO4 . Examples of important changes included increases in the network mesh size even as ‘‘petrification’’ of the network by the salt rendered it less elastic. Nevertheless, for 1 K PEO melts the essential nature of the melt/gel remained uneffected. © 2002 American Institute of Physics. @DOI: 10.1063/1.1481059#