Structure and Entanglement Factors on Dynamics of Polymer-Grafted Nanoparticles
Nanoparticles functionalized with long polymer chains at low graft density are interesting systems to study structure–dynamic relationships in polymer nanocomposites since they are shown to aggregate into strings in both solution and melts and also into spheres and branched aggregates in the presence of free polymer chains. Our work investigates structure and entanglement effects in composites of polystyrene-grafted iron oxide nanoparticles by measuring particle relaxations using X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy. And for particles within highly ordered strings and aggregated systems, they experience a dynamically heterogeneous environment displaying hyperdiffusive relaxation commonly observed in jammed soft glassy systems. Furthermore, particle dynamics is diffusive for branched aggregated structures which could be caused by less penetration of long matrix chains into brushes. These results suggest that particle motion is dictated by the strong interactions of chains grafted at low density with the host matrix polymer.
- Authors:
-
[1];
[1];
[1];
[2];
[1]
- Stevens Inst. of Technology, Hoboken, NJ (United States). Dept. of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Advanced Photon Source
- Publication Date:
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-06CH11357
- Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- ACS Macro Letters
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 5; Journal Issue: 5; Journal ID: ISSN 2161-1653
- Publisher:
- American Chemical Society
- Research Org:
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Org:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22); National Science Foundation (NSF)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1339949