Interest in single chain, soft nanoparticles has increased significantly due to their use as model self-assembling macromolecules, and as novel additives in polymer nanocomposite. Our group and others have shown that the addition of soft single chain nanoparticles can dramatically influence the dynamics of neighboring polymer chains and that the motion of these soft nanoparticles mimics the diffusive behavior of nanogels, where the transport of the nanoparticle relies on the cooperative motion of neighboring linear chains. In this talk, we will report small angle neutron scattering results that correlate synthetic conditions of the soft nanoparticle to their internal morphology. This analysis provides characterization of the individual nanoparticle molecular weight, the radius of the crosslinked core, the thickness of the fuzzy interfacial layer, and provides insight into methods to control the overall topography of the soft nanoparticle. The dynamics of both the polymer chain and these soft nanoparticles themselves in a polymer nanocomposite has also been studied and correlated to the morphological characteristics of the nanoparticle. These results provide fascinating insights that can be utilized to more accurately predict the impact of soft nanoparticles on the ultimate properties of their mixtures with polymer matrices.

Correlation of soft nanogel internal morphology to the dynamics of both components in a polymer nanocomposite

254th National Meeting (2017)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.