Structure and dynamics of large ring polymers

We report a comprehensive study on the molecular conformation and dynamics of very large poly(ethylene oxide) rings in the melt: (i) for all rings, independent of the ring size, by small angle neutron scattering we observe a crossover from a strong Q-dependence at intermediate Q to a Q−2 dependence at higher Q. Constructing a generic model including a crossover from Gaussian statistics at short distances to more compact structures at larger...