A straight synthetic route to fabricate hybrid nanocomposite films of well-dispersed CdS nanocrystals (NCs) in poly[2-methoxy-5-(2'-ethyl-hexyloxy)-1,4-phenylene vinylene] (MEH-PPV) is reported. A soluble cadmium complex [Cd(SBz)2]2·MI, obtained by incorporating a Lewis base (1-methylimidazole, MI) on the cadmium bis(benzyl)thiol, is used as starting reagent in an in situ thermolytic process. C...

QIAN ZHAO: CO2-mediated formation of polymer/clay nanocomposites (Under the direction of Edward T. Samulski) In this thesis, the feasibility of scCO2 as both a processing medium and a polymerization medium for preparation of polymer/clay nanocomposites has been explored, with the first part discussing a CO2-mediated intercalation of poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) in clay. It has been shown that CO2...

This short Feature Article reviews electric stimuli-responsive polymer/clay nanocomposites with respect to their fabrication, physical characteristics and electrorheological (ER) behaviors under applied electric fields when dispersed in oil. Their structural characteristics, morphological features and thermal degradation behavior were examined by X-ray diffraction pattern, scanning electron mic...

There is a lot of thrill in a new area of research called Nanotechnology. The term nanotechnology describes a range of the technologies performed on a nanometer scale with widespread applications. Lot of research has been going on in finding nanomaterials. An area of research under this field is Nanocomposites. They are material made by mixing of two different materials (with different properti...

The emerging areas of polymer nanocomposites, as some are already in use in industrial applications and daily commodities, have the potential of offering new technologies with all manner of prominent capabilities. The incorporation of nanomaterials into polymeric matrix provides significant improvements, such as higher mechanical, thermal or electrical properties. In these materials, interface/...

In this work, maghemite intercalated montmorillonite (γFe₂O₃-MMT)/polymer nanocomposites loaded with 1 or 2 wt.% of nanofillers were obtained by photopolymerization of difunctional acrylate monomers. The γFe₂O₃-MMT nanofillers were prepared by a new method based on the in situ formation of maghemite in the interlayer space of Fe-MMT using a three step process. X-ray diffraction (XRD), chemical ...

Polymer diffusion and matrix morphology are investigated in polymer nanocomposites (PNCs). Using elastic recoil detection, tracer diffusion coefficients (D) of dPS and dPMMA are measured in PNCs containing polystyrene (PS) with phenyl-capped (Ph) silica, and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) with hydroxylterminated (OH) silica nanoparticles (NPs), respectively. As NP volume fraction increases or...