It is well known that the presence of long chain branching (LCB) in a polymer has a large impact on its viscoelastic properties and can affect significantly the processability of the filled rubber compound (black incorporation time, die swell, extrusion behavior).
Despite the influence of the molecular architecture of the polymer on viscoelastic properties that is usually investigated by the linear viscoelastic (LVE) characterization, this approach is not enough to disclose information on complex branching patterns or for fully understanding the processing behavior of elastomers.