Rubbery plateau (source code)

= Rubbery plateau
{title2=$G_R$}

The rubbery plateau is a frequency or time range in which a flexible polymer network has an approximately constant elastic <storage modulus> dominated by chain entropy. A permanently crosslinked <elastomer> retains a nonzero long-time modulus. An entangled uncrosslinked <polymer melt> can have a transient plateau but ultimately reaches terminal fluid flow at sufficiently low frequency. The plateau therefore must be interpreted with the network lifetime and observation window specified.