Macromolecules, Vol.50, No.14, 5611-5618, 2017
Dynamics of Semiflexible Polymer Solutions in the Tightly Entangled Concentration Regime
I corroborate an important experimental evidence reported by Schuldt et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 2016, 117, 197801] revealing the incapability of the current theoretical framework to fully describe the dynamics of semiflexible polymer solutions in the tightly entangled concentration regime. These results have been endorsed here by means of previously published, but overlooked, data by Tassieri et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 2008, 101, 198301; Biophys. J. 2008, 94, 2170]. The ensemble of information provides a strong evidence that the scaling law of the plateau modulus as a function of polymers concentration and persistence length, i.e., G(0) proportional to c(alpha)L(p)(beta), should have both the exponents positive, in contrast with all the existing predictions converging on similar values of alpha > 0 and beta < 0-hence the need of new theoretical models able to better interpret the contribution of the polymer bending rigidity to the viscoelastic properties of the polymer network.