Distortion of Chain Conformation and Reduced Entanglement in Polymer–Graphene Oxide Nanocomposites

Weir, M.P.; Johnson, D.W.; Boothroyd, S.C.; Savage, R.C.; Thompson, R.L.; King, S.M.; Rogers, S.E.; Coleman, K.S.; Clarke, N.

Abstract

We study the conformations of polymer chains in polymer–graphene oxide nanocomposites. We show that the chains have a reduced radius of gyration that is consistent with confinement at a solid interface in the melt, as is expected for well-dispersed, high aspect ratio nanoparticles that are much larger than the polymer coil size. We show that confinement of the polymer chains causes a corresponding reduction in interchain entanglements, and we calculate a contribution to the plateau modulus from the distorted polymer network via a simple scaling argument. Our results are a significant step forward in understanding how two-dimensional nanoparticles affect global material properties at low loadings.

Citation

Weir, M., Johnson, D., Boothroyd, S., Savage, R., Thompson, R., King, S., …Clarke, N. (2016). Distortion of Chain Conformation and Reduced Entanglement in Polymer–Graphene Oxide Nanocomposites. ACS Macro Letters, 5(4), 430-434. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsmacrolett.6b00100

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 8, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Mar 9, 2016
• Publication Date: Mar 9, 2016
• Deposit Date: Mar 15, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 9, 2017
• Journal: ACS Macro Letters
• Publisher: American Chemical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 5
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 430-434
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsmacrolett.6b00100
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1409553