LOCAL ORDER IN A GLOBALLY DEFORMED POLYMER NETWORK WITH NEMATIC-LIKE INTERACTIONS

The influence of nematiclike interactions, that is, preference for the alignment of neighboring chain segments, is considered for a globally deformed polymer network. The local order is characterized by an orientation factor which is the average of second Legendre polynomial, being a function of segment orientations, calculated with the actual distribution of chain segment orientations. For the description of interactions between segments, a molecular mean‐field approach is used. The orientation‐dependent potential is assumed proportional to cos2θ, where θ is the angle between the direction of the orienting field and the chain segment vector. The local orientation factor of deformed polymer network, is calculated for various values of interaction strength and network structural parameters (contraction coefficent, length of network chains). For some values of these parameters, the local order can be considerable. Copyright © 1990 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.