5. Structure-property correlations

5.1 Homogeneous polymers: the influence of microstructure

The existence of a distribution of relaxation times, some of which reflect the ease with which macromolecules can move in the environment formed by other molecules, suggests the existence of correlations between observed rheological behavior and polymer structure. In the case of homogeneous polymers, this structure is more particularly defined by the distribution of molar masses (weight-average mass and polymolecularity among others), by the existence of branches and by the length of these branches.