Associating polymers:: From "flowers" to transient networks

We report on a novel telechelic associating polymers that self-assemble in solution into starlike flowers in the dilute regime and develop a fully connected network of flowers above some threshold concentration phi*. Small-angle neutron scattering has been used to investigate the form and structure factors of the starlike aggregates, whereas linear rheology was performed to identify the viscoelastic features of the temporary network. These findings are compared to those obtained on an associating polymer which is half of the telechelic in molecular weight and monofunctionalized (no bridging). Although the neutron scattering signatures are the same, the latter solutions remain Newtonian and fluid even for phi >> phi*.