Nanoparticle Motion in Entangled Melts of Linear and Nonconcatenated Ring Polymers

TitleNanoparticle Motion in Entangled Melts of Linear and Nonconcatenated Ring Polymers
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2017
AuthorsT Ge, JT Kalathi, JD Halverson, GS Grest, and M Rubinstein
JournalMacromolecules
Pagination1749 - 1754
Date Published01/2017
Abstract

The motion of nanoparticles (NPs) in en-tangled melts of linear polymers and nonconcatenated ring polymers are compared by large-scale molecular dynamics simulations. The comparison provides a paradigm for the effects of polymer architecture on the dynamical coupling between NPs and polymers in nanocomposites. Strongly suppressed motion of NPs with diameter d larger than the entanglement spacing a is observed in a melt of linear polymers before the onset of Fickian NP diffusion. This strong suppression of NP motion occurs progressively as d exceeds a and is related to the hopping diffusion of NPs in the entanglement network. In contrast to the NP motion in linear polymers, the motion of NPs with d \textgreater a in ring polymers is not as strongly suppressed prior to Fickian diffusion. The diffusion coefficient D decreases with increasing d much slower in entangled rings than in entangled linear chains. NP motion in entangled nonconcatenated ring polymers is understood through a scaling analysis of the coupling between NP motion and the self-similar entangled dynamics of ring polymers.

DOI10.1021/acs.macromol.6b02632
Short TitleMacromolecules