General Strategies for Nanoparticle Dispersion
Traditionally the dispersion of particles in polymeric materials has proven difficult and frequently results in phase separation and agglomeration. We show that thermodynamically stable dispersion of nanoparticles into a polymeric liquid is enhanced for systems where the radius of gyration of the li...
Saved in:
Published in | Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 311; no. 5768; pp. 1740 - 1743 |
---|---|
Main Authors | , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Washington, DC
American Association for the Advancement of Science
24.03.2006
The American Association for the Advancement of Science |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
Cover
Loading…
Summary: | Traditionally the dispersion of particles in polymeric materials has proven difficult and frequently results in phase separation and agglomeration. We show that thermodynamically stable dispersion of nanoparticles into a polymeric liquid is enhanced for systems where the radius of gyration of the linear polymer is greater than the radius of the nanoparticle. Dispersed nanoparticles swell the linear polymer chains, resulting in a polymer radius of gyration that grows with the nanoparticle volume fraction. It is proposed that this entropically unfavorable process is offset by an enthalpy gain due to an increase in molecular contacts at dispersed nanoparticle surfaces as compared with the surfaces of phase-separated nanoparticles. Even when the dispersed state is thermodynamically stable, it may be inaccessible unless the correct processing strategy is adopted, which is particularly important for the case of fullerene dispersion into linear polymers. |
---|---|
Bibliography: | http://www.scienceonline.org/ ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23 ObjectType-Article-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 |
ISSN: | 0036-8075 1095-9203 |
DOI: | 10.1126/science.1122225 |