The photogeneration and decay of charge carriers in blend films of ZnO nanoparticles (diameter 5 nm) and poly[2-methoxy-5-(3',7'-dimethyloctyloxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene] (MDMO-PPV) or poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) were studied by means of microwave-photoconductance measurements. Excitation of the polymer in the visible spectrum was found to lead to a transient photoconductance due to dissociati...

Hybrid nanocrystal-polymer systems are promising candidates for photovoltaic applications, but the processes controlling charge generation are poorly understood. Here, we disentangle the energy- and charge-transfer processes occurring in a model system based on blends of cadmium selenide nanocrystals (CdSe-NC) with poly[2-methoxy-5-(3',7'-dimethyloctyloxy)-1,4-phenylene vinylene] (MDMO-PPV) usi...

A quite general characteristic of the rheology of incompatible polymer blends in the melt is their highly elastic behaviour at low frequencies, corresponding to long-time relaxation processes. For emulsions of Newtonian liquids, this property can be readily connected to interfacial tension a: in a macroscopic flow, suspended droplets of radius R are subjected on the one hand to a viscous drag r...

Because of negligible contributions of combinatorial entropy, miscibility of polymers is attributed predominantly to favorable (exothermic) enthalpic effects of mixing, i.e., to strong interactions between the blend components, which have to overcome the cohesive forces acting within the components. Miscibility of amorphous polymers usually is associated with the presence of a single glass temp...

Techniques in resin blending are simple and efficient method for improving the properties of polymers, and have been used widely in polymer modification field. However, polymer latex blends such as the combination of latexes, especially the latexes with water-soluble polymers, were rarely reported. Here, we report a core-shell composite latex synthesized using methyl methacrylate (MMA), butyl a...

We present time-resolved photoluminescence studies in conjunction with device characterization of a variety of heterojunctions with poly-(3-hexylthiophene), or P3HT, as a means to understand how exciton dynamics affect device performance. We find that blends of P3HT with the electron-transporting polymer CN-ether-PPV and with the fullerene derivative PCBM result in ~4-fold and ~15-fold improvem...

Nanoscale ordering in a polymer blend structure is indispensable to obtain materials with tailored properties. It was established here that controlling the arrangement of nanoparticles, with different characteristics, in co-continuous PC/PVDF (polycarbonate/poly(vinylidene fluoride)) blends can result in outstanding microwave absorption (ca. 90%). An excellent reflection loss (RL) of ca. -71 dB...

Blend reverse osmosis membranes were fabricated using polyvinyl chloride (PVC) with cellulose acetate (CA) as polymer blends. Tetrahydrofuran (THF) and N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) were used as solvents. The membrane polymer solution was cast on a coated woven fabric support material. The prepared membranes have been characterized by SEM and mechanical properties. SEM r...