Figure 1
a Schematic of the equilibrium configuration of a Gaussian flexible chain with size R g in a polymer melt, adsorbed on a spherical particle with radius R ≫ R g . The adsorbed chain consists of loops, tails and sequences of bonded segments. b At sufficiently large shear deformation (rate), the adsorbed polymer chain stretches in the direction of the flow. The stretched chain can be pictured as a close-packing of subunits called blobs, each of size R b within which the structure of the chain is still Gaussian