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Molecular entanglement in polymeric systems
Polymers are long chain molecules that entangle easily. Entanglements are like knots between polymer chains, and in many cases these topological constraints in the system are the reason that polymer systems behave so markedly different from monomeric systems. I will discuss how we can experimentally probe entanglements and what we
learn in two cases : 1) How is molecular entanglement influenced when the system is confined to very small sizes ; and 2) What happens to these systems when we systematically remove some of the entanglements. In both cases a relatively simple model can be developed to understand entanglement.