Chain Conformation in Polymer Nanocomposites with Uniformly Dispersed Nanoparticles

M. K. Crawford, R. J. Smalley, G. Cohen, B. Hogan, B. Wood, S. K. Kumar, Y. B. Melnichenko, L. He, W. Guise, and B. Hammouda

Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 196001 – Published 6 May 2013

Abstract

The effect of nanoparticles (NP) on chain dimensions in polymer melts has been the source of considerable theoretical and experimental controversy. We exploit our ability to ensure a spatially uniform dispersion of 13 nm silica NPs miscible in polystyrene melts, together with neutron scattering, x-ray scattering, and transmission electron microscopy, to show that there is no measurable change in the polymer size in miscible mixtures, regardless of the relative sizes of the chains and the nanoparticles, and for NP loadings as high as 32.7 vol%. Our results provide a firm basis from which to understand the properties of polymer nanocomposites.

Received 29 November 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.196001

Authors & Affiliations

M. K. Crawford¹, R. J. Smalley¹, G. Cohen¹, B. Hogan¹, B. Wood¹, S. K. Kumar², Y. B. Melnichenko³, L. He³, W. Guise^1,4, and B. Hammouda⁵

¹DuPont Central Research and Development, E400/5424, Wilmington, Delaware 19880-0400, USA
²Department of Chemical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, New York, 10027, USA
³Biology and Soft Matter Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831-6393, USA
⁴Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 S. Cass Avenue, Lemont, Illinois 60439, USA
⁵NIST Center for Neutron Research, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20879-8562, USA