Final Report DOE Award # DE-FG02-05ER46218, Texas Tech University: "Cyclic Macromolecules: Dynamics and Nonlinear Rheology"

The work described in the present report had the original goal to produce large, entangled, ring polymers that were uncontaminated by linear chains and to characterize by rheological methods the dynamics of these rings. While the work fell short of this specific goal, the outcomes of the research performed under support from this grant provided novel macromolecular synthesis methods, new separation methods for ring and linear chains, and novel rheological data on bottle brush polymers, wedge polymers and dendron-based ring molecules. The grant funded a total of 8 archival manuscripts and one patent, all of which are attached to the present report.