Small Particle Driven Chain Disentanglements in Polymer Nanocomposites

Published

April 5, 2017

Author(s)

Erkan NMN Senses, Siyam M. Ansar, Christopher L. Kitchens, Yimin NMN Mao, Suresh Narayanan, Bharath NMN Natarajan, Antonio Faraone

Abstract

Using neutron spin-echo spectroscopy, X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy and bulk rheology, we studied the effect of particle size on the single chain dynamics, particle mobility, and bulk viscosity in athermal polyethylene oxide-gold nanoparticle composites. The result reveal a {approximately equal} 25 % increase of the reptation tube diameter with addition of nanoparticles smaller than entanglement mesh size ({approximately equal}5 nm), at a volume fraction of 20%. The tube diameter remains unchanged in composite with large nanoparticles at the same loading. In any case, the Rouse dynamics is insensitive to particle size. These results provide a direct experimental observation of particle size driven disentanglements that can cause non-Einstein-like viscosity trends often observed in polymer nanocompsites.

Citation

Physical Review Letters

Volume

118

Issue

14

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

polymer nanocomposites, gold nanoparticles, tube dilation, disentanglements, Rouse dynamics, reptation, xpcs, rheology, viscosity reduction

Citation

, E. , , S. , , C. , , Y. , Narayanan, S. , , B. and Faraone, A. (2017), Small Particle Driven Chain Disentanglements in Polymer Nanocomposites, Physical Review Letters, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=922279 (Accessed October 11, 2025)