In order to further understand the relaxation behavior of binary blends of star and linear chains, new polymer blends consisting of linear poly(hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) matrix and PHB star molecules are designed, and their dynamics is investigated by varying the star concentrations and the molar mass of the linear matrix, while keeping few or no star−star entanglements in the blends. By studying the constraint release Rouse (CRR) relaxation of the star polymer diluted in the linear matrix at concentrations low enough to neglect star−star entanglements, we first point out the importance of the number of short linear chain entanglements on the CRR time of the long chains. For the blends composed of a larger proportion of star molecules, we then use this new definition of CRR time to determine the necessary time of a star−star entanglement segment to relax by CRR and explore its dilated tube, at the rhythm of the disentanglement/re-entanglements of the short chains. By considering this as the new reference time for describing the contour length fluctuations of the arm in its "fat" tube, i.e., the tube which only involves star−star entanglements, we propose a simple and consistent way to take into account two opposite effects resulting from the short linear matrix. On the one hand, fast relaxation leads to a large dilution effect, which is reflected by the dilation of the tube in which the long chains are moving. On the other hand, the long chains can only move in their fat tube at the rhythm of the motion of the short chains, which can slow down their relaxation compared to the motion of the same stars diluted in a real solvent.
Besides the performance of a lithium-ion battery cell, the manufacturing costs are crucial for the success of battery electric vehicles. To enable cost efficient yet well performing battery cells, an optimization of the manufacturing steps with respect to the cell properties is necessary. The slurry mixing process, being the initial step of the lithium-ion battery cell manufacturing process, is well known to affect the structure of the electrode coating (e.g. porosity, tortuosity or the distribution of the binder and conductive additive), which is further connected to its electrical and ionic resistances. Therefore, a variation of the formulation strategy or mixing device can affect the performance of the lithium-ion battery cell. In this study, several variations of the slurry mixing process are investigated with respect to its effect on the fast-charge capability of the lithium-ion battery cell. Properties of the slurry, the electrode and the resulting lithium-ion battery cell are characterized for each variation to detect interdependencies and derive process-structure-property relations.
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