Determining Molecular Weight Distributions from the Rheological Properties of Polymer Melts

This note is a summary of the state-of-the-art for determining molecular weight distributions from melt rheological properties. It consists of a short introduction, including a summary of the models used, and then focuses on the so-called “Modulus Model” with emphasis on an evaluation of the recently commercialized software from Rheometric Scientific, Inc. It will conclude with a short look into the future. My apologies to all the contributors to the literature who have not been mentioned due to the limited scope of this paper.