NEUTRON SPIN ECHO STUDIES ON DYNAMICS OF POLYMERIC MICELLES

Abstract Neutron spin echo measurements were performed on polymeric micelles consisting of deuterated polystyrene (d-PS)-polyisoprene (PI) diblock copolymers in dilute and concentrated solutions. The scattering length density of the core of the micelles matched to the solvent so that dynamics of polymer chains in the corona were measured. The observed intermediate scattering functions in the dilute solution were analyzed by the theory for tethered chains proposed by de Gennes. In the concentrated solutions, motional slowing down was observed, which may be caused not only by increase of the viscosity but also by decrease of the osmotic compressibility.