Chain conformation in polymer melts during flow as measured by small angle neutron scattering

The anisotropic form factor of polystyrene (PS) chains during tensile and simple shear flows in the melt has been measured by small angle neutron scattering (SANS) on quenched samples containing deuterium labeled chains. For all tensile experiments, carried out in a wide range of strain rates,including linear viscoelastic behaviour, the chain conformation is well predicted by a temporary network model involving the recoverable strain. For binary blends of two PS with different molecular weight, the technique allows to characterize the chain conformation of either species. The scattering patterns of sheared samples show that the principal directions of molecular orientation depend on the magnitude of the scattering vector q: At high q (local level on the chain) the orientation is close to 45-degrees with respect to the shear axis, whereas at low q the chains appear to be almost aligned with the stream lines.