Effect of long chain branching on linear-viscoelastic melt properties of polyolefins

The aim of this review is to provide evidence that rheological testing is a potent tool for characterising polymers in the melt. An effort has been made in order to gather results in conventional and model polyolefins, and correlating them with phenomena occurring at the molecular level. We have focused our interest on long chain branching (LCB). In the case of materials containing long side-chain branches, strong effects on viscosity, elastic character and activation energy of flow are general features. Literature results mostly indicate that the effect of polydispersity on these parameters could be very similar to that expected due to the presence of LCB - notwithstanding that the effects of LCB seem to be stronger than those due to polydispersity for a given molecular weight. Different relaxation processes appear as a consequence of the presence of LCB: slower terminal relaxation behaviour than of linear counterparts, and faster additional branch relaxation at higher frequencies, clearly distinguishable from polydispersity effects. To measure the amount of LCB from limited viscoelastic data and molecular properties seems to be a suitable instrument to explain the rheological features of the different polymers, but it fails when the results are compared with measured values of LCB density in model polymers. The actual framework leads us to say that the number of branches is less important than the topology itself. Therefore, the position and architecture of the branches along the polymer main chain are the main factors that control the rheology of the material.