Issue 2, 2015

Polymer conformations in polymer nanocomposites containing spherical nanoparticles

Abstract

We investigate the effect of various spherical nanoparticles on chain dimensions in polymer melts for high nanoparticle loading which is larger than the percolation threshold, using molecular dynamics simulations. We show that polymer chains are unperturbed by the presence of repulsive nanoparticles. In contrast polymer chains can be perturbed by the presence of attractive nanoparticles when the polymer radius of gyration is larger than the nanoparticle radius. At high nanoparticle loading, chains can be stretched and flattened by the nanoparticles, even oligomers can expand under the presence of attractive nanoparticles of very small size.

Graphical abstract: Polymer conformations in polymer nanocomposites containing spherical nanoparticles

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
03 Sep 2014
Accepted
27 Oct 2014
First published
29 Oct 2014
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Soft Matter, 2015,11, 382-388

Author version available

Polymer conformations in polymer nanocomposites containing spherical nanoparticles

A. Karatrantos, N. Clarke, R. J. Composto and K. I. Winey, Soft Matter, 2015, 11, 382 DOI: 10.1039/C4SM01980F

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