Abstract
Dynamically crosslinked polymer networks, such as vitrimers, can behave like thermostats at low temperatures with excellent mechanical properties, and like thermoplastics at high temperatures where the network structure can be re-organized due to dynamic crosslinks. We develop a statistical model for analysing the universal viscoelastic properties of such dynamically crosslinked polymer networks, where the microscopic dynamics of the crosslinks are incorporated. By applying the model to vitrimers and exchangeable liquid crystal elastomers as two examples, we investigate how they respond in typical rheology tests, for example, linear viscoelasticity, stress relaxation, creep compliance, etc.
Fanlong Meng is now a full professor at Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He obtained his Bachelor degree in physics from University of Science and Technology of China in 2010, and his PhD degree in theoretical Physics from Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2015. From the year of 2015 to 2019, he worked as a postdoc at University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, and Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (Humboldt Fellow). In 2019, he joined Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences as an associate professor and then got promoted to the full professor in 2023. Professor Meng’s current research interests are focused on non-equilibrium statistical physics, active matter physics and polymer physics. For more details, one can refer to: http://lib.itp.ac.cn/html/meng.