Entanglements in polymer nanocomposites containing spherical nanoparticles.

Structure, entanglements and dynamics of polymer nanocomposites containing spherical nanoparticles

Polymer conformations in polymer nanocomposites containing spherical nanoparticles.

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 th...

Field theoretic simulations of polymer nanocomposites.

Polymer field theory has emerged as a powerful tool for describing the equilibrium phase behavior of complex polymer formulations, particularly when one is interested in the thermodynamics of dense polymer melts and solutions where the polymer chains can be accurately described using Gaussian models. However, there are many systems of interest where polymer field theory cannot be applied in suc...

Polymer Nanocomposites Containing Anisotropic Metal Nanostructures as Internal Strain Indicators

Polymer/metal nanocomposite containing intrinsically anisotropic metal nanostructures such as metal nanorods and nanowires appeared extremely more sensitive and responsive to mechanical stimuli than nanocomposites containing spherical nanoparticles. After uniaxial stretching of the supporting polymer matrix (poly(vinyl alcohol)), the elongated silver nanostructures embedded at low concentration...

Hopping Diffusion of Nanoparticles in Polymer Matrices

We propose a hopping mechanism for diffusion of large nonsticky nanoparticles subjected to topological constraints in both unentangled and entangled polymer solids (networks and gels) and entangled polymer liquids (melts and solutions). Probe particles with size larger than the mesh size ax of unentangled polymer networks or tube diameter ae of entangled polymer liquids are trapped by the netwo...