Ion-Specific Interfacial Crystallization of Polymer-Grafted Nanoparticles

Modulating interfacial attraction of polymer-grafted nanoparticles in melts under shear.

The mechanical properties of polymer nanocomposites are significantly affected by spatial ordering of nanoparticles (NPs) which can be modified under shear flow fields. Polymer-grafted iron oxide NPs form strings, well-dispersed, and percolated anisotropic nanostructures depending on grafting density, and herein their mechanical properties under large oscillatory shear flows are reported. We sh...

Environmentally Friendly Synthesis of Polymer-Grafted Nanoparticles

All-Solid-State Lithium-Ion Batteries with Grafted Ceramic Nanoparticles Dispersed in Solid Polymer Electrolytes.

Lithium-based rechargeable batteries offer superior specific energy and power, and have enabled exponential growth in industries focused on small electronic devices. However, further increases in energy density, for example for electric transportation, face the challenge of harnessing the lithium metal as negative electrode instead of limited-capacity graphite and its heavy copper current colle...

Structure and transport properties of polymer grafted nanoparticles.

We perform molecular dynamics simulations on a bead-spring model of pure polymer grafted nanoparticles (PGNs) and of a blend of PGNs with a polymer melt to investigate the correlation between PGN design parameters (such as particle core concentration, polymer grafting density, and polymer length) and properties, such as microstructure, particle mobility, and viscous response. Constant strain-ra...

Modeling the anisotropic self-assembly of spherical polymer-grafted nanoparticles.

Recent experimental results demonstrated that polymer grafted nanoparticles in solvents display self-assembly behavior similar to the microphase separation of block copolymers and other amphiphiles. We present a mean-field theory and complementary computer simulations to shed light on the parametric underpinnings of the experimental observations. Our theory suggests that such self-assembled str...