| Glass forming polymers are of great industrial importance and scientific interest because of their unique mechanical properties, which arise from the connectivity and random-walk-like structure of the constituent chains. In this thesis I study the relation of entanglements to the mechanical properties of model polymer glasses and brushes using molecular dynamics simulations.; We perform extensive studies of glassy strain hardening, which stabilizes polymers against strain localization and fracture. Fundamental inconsistencies in existing entropic models of strain hardening imply that our understanding of its microscopic origins is far from complete. The dependence of stress on strain and entanglement density is consistent with experiment and entropic models. However, many of the assumptions of these models are totally inconsistent with our simulation results.; The dependence on temperature, rate and interaction strength can be understood as reflecting changes in the plastic flow stress rather than a network entropy. A substantial energetic contribution to the stress rises rapidly as segments between entanglements are pulled taut. The thermal component of stress is less sensitive to entanglements, mostly irreversible, and directly related to the rate of local plastic arrangements. The deformation of the entanglement network is not affine to the macroscopic stretch. Entangled and unentangled chains show the same strain hardening when plotted against the microscopic chain orientation rather than the macroscopic strain. The entropic back stress responsible for shape recovery arises from chain orientation rather than entanglement.; We also present some other results unrelated to strain hardening. We analyze the entanglement of polymer brushes embedded in long-chain melts and in implicit good and theta solvents. The melt-embedded brushes are more self-entangled than those in the solvents. The degree of self-entanglement of the brushes in the solvents follows a simple scaling argument. In the melt-embedded systems, the brushes entangle predominantly with the melt at low coverage and with themselves at high coverage. The peak of the brush-melt entanglement density is highest at an intermediate coverage, but the integrated areal brush-melt entanglement density continues to increase with coverage. This areal density correlates well with earlier measurements of the work of adhesion. |
