Issue 46, 2018

Molecular structure and multi-body potential of mean force in silica-polystyrene nanocomposites

Abstract

We perform a systematic application of the hybrid particle-field molecular dynamics technique [Milano, et al., J. Chem. Phys., 2009, 130, 214106] to study interfacial properties and potential of mean force (PMF) for separating nanoparticles (NPs) in a melt. Specifically, we consider Silica NPs bare or grafted with Polystyrene chains, aiming to shed light on the interactions among free and grafted chains affecting the dispersion of NPs in the nanocomposite. The proposed hybrid models show good performances in catching the local structure of the chains, and in particular their density profiles, documenting the existence of the “wet-brush-to-dry-brush” transition. By using these models, the PMF between pairs of ungrafted and grafted NPs in Polystyrene matrix are calculated. Moreover, we estimate the three-particle contribution to the total PMF and its role in regulating the phase separation on the nanometer scale. In particular, the multi-particle contribution to the PMF is able to give an explanation of the complex experimental morphologies observed at low grafting densities. More in general, we propose this approach and the models utilized here for a molecular understanding of specific systems and the impact of the chemical nature of the systems on the composite final properties.

Graphical abstract: Molecular structure and multi-body potential of mean force in silica-polystyrene nanocomposites

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
25 Jun 2018
Accepted
17 Sep 2018
First published
17 Sep 2018

Nanoscale, 2018,10, 21656-21670

Molecular structure and multi-body potential of mean force in silica-polystyrene nanocomposites

G. Munaò, A. Pizzirusso, A. Kalogirou, A. De Nicola, T. Kawakatsu, F. Müller-Plathe and G. Milano, Nanoscale, 2018, 10, 21656 DOI: 10.1039/C8NR05135F

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