Decoding the viscoelastic response of polydisperse star/linear polymer blends

We probed the viscoelastic behavior of polydisperse star/linear polymer blends with varying composition and average arm length. The linear viscoelastic behavior has been investigated over a wide range of frequencies using both oscillatory and long creep/recovery experiments. A method was developed for splitting the molar mass distributions of the blends into the contributions of different architectures. These results were used to implement a time-marching algorithm based on a parameter-free tube model for predicting the linear viscoelastic behavior. The model predictions were successfully validated with the experimental data, opening the route for designing blends with desired rheological properties.