Stress relaxation experiments on a lamellar polystyrene–polyisoprene diblock copolymer melt

The non-linear rheology of the lamellar phase of a polystyrene–polyisoprene diblock copolymer is studied by oscillatory shear experiments. The relaxation of the shear modulus, G(t, γ) is studied as a function of strain amplitude, γ, up to large amplitude strains, γ=100%. The decay of G(t, γ) is analysed using the model-independent CONTIN inverse Laplace transform algorithm to obtain a series of relaxation times, which reveals multiple relaxation processes. The timescale for the fastest relaxation processes is compared to those previously observed for diblock copolymer melts via dynamic light scattering experiments. The slowest relaxation process may be related to the shear-induced orientation of the lamellae. It is shown that time-strain separability G(t, γ)=G(t)h(γ) can be applied, and the damping function h(γ) is consistent with a strongly strain-softening system exhibiting plastic flow at large strains.