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We have measured the linear rheology of critically purified ring polyisoprenes, polystyrenes, and polyethyleneoxides of different molar masses. The ratio of the zero-shear viscosities of linear polymer melts η0,linear to their ring counterparts η0,ring at isofrictional conditions is discussed as a function of the number of entanglements Z. In the unentangled regime η0,linear/η0,ring is virtually constant, consistent with the earlier data, atomistic simulations, and the theoretical expectation η0,linear/η0,ring = 2. In the entanglement regime, the Z-dependence of ring viscosity is much weaker than that of linear polymers, in qualitative agreement with predictions from scaling theory and simulations. The power-law extracted from the available experimental data in the rather limited range 1 < Z < 20, η0,linear/η0,ring Z1.2±0.3, is weaker than the scaling prediction (η0,linear/η0,ring Z1.6±0.3) and the simulations (η0,linear/η0,ring Z2.0±0.3). Nevertheless, the present collection of state-of-the-art experimental data unambiguously demonstrates that rings exhibit a universal trend clearly departing from that of their linear counterparts, and hence it represents a major step toward resolving a 30-year-old problem.

The strong influence of (1,3-phenylene)bis(3-methyl-1-phenyl pentylidene)dilithium initiator (DLI) concentration on the modality of polybutadiene (PBd) in the presence of lithium s-butoxide (s-BuOLi) in benzene, at room temperature, has been studied. The quality of DLI has been evaluated by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and 1H NMR. Keeping s-BuOLi/C-Li ratio (R) close to unity, at relatively high DLI concentrations (C > 7 × 10−4 M), monomodal high 1,4-PBds with polydispersity index less than 1.07 were obtained, whereas bimodal ones at lower concentrations (C < 6 × 10−4 M). The effect of C-Li concentration on the modality of PBd has been evaluated using size exclusion chromatography on samples taken during and at the end of the polymerization. Viscosity observations have also been used to further support the results. The bimodality of PBd has been attributed to partially terminated difunctional species because of the inevitable presence of protic impurities in the polymerization solution, although high vacuum technique was used, which becomes more significant at low initiator concentrations. Moreover, the strong influence of s-BuOLi on the microstructure of PBd has been demonstrated by 1H NMR. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2013