INFLUENCE OF PENDENT CHAINS ON THE THERMODYNAMIC AND VISCOELASTIC PROPERTIES OF SWOLLEN NETWORKS

In the reported experiments, polystyrene networks containing controlled amounts of pendent chains and swollen to equilibrium in benzene have been investigated by inelastic light scattering and stress-strain experiments. Both the cooperative diffusion constant and compression modulus have been shown to decrease drastically when the proportion of pendent chains increased, while the equilibrium segment concentration exhibits only a small variation. The experimental results are discussed in terms of a change of structure and dimensions of the macromolecular strands of the network.