1 research outputs found
Entropic Interactions in Semiflexible Polymer Nanocomposite Melts
By
employing molecular dynamics simulations, we explored the effective
depletion zone for nanoparticles (NP) immersed in semiflexible polymer
melts and calculated the entropic depletion interactions between a
pair of NPs in semiflexible polymer nanocomposite melts. The average
depletion zone volumes rely mainly on polymer chain stiffness and
increase with chain stiffness increasing. In the semiflexible polymer
nanocomposite melts, the entropic depletion interactions are attractive
and anisotropic, and increase with chain stiffness increasing. Meanwhile,
the attractive interactions between NPs and polymers can also affect
strongly the entropic depletion interactions. For the semiflexible
polymer nanocomposite melts in the athermal system, the entropic depletion
interactions change from anisotropic to isotropic when the NP/polymer
interactions increase. For NPs in the rodlike polymer melts, a mixture
structure of contact/“bridging” aggregations for NPs
is formed at a strong attractive NP/polymer interaction. Our calculations
can provide an effective framework to predict the morphology of NPs
immersed in semiflexible polymer melts