Open AccessNanoparticle Motion in Entangled Melts of Linear and Nonconcatenated Ring Polymers
Author(s) -
Ting Ge,
Jagannathan T. Kalathi,
Jonathan D. Halverson,
Gary S. Grest,
Michael Rubinstein
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
macromolecules
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.994
H-Index - 313
eISSN - 1520-5835
pISSN - 0024-9297
DOI - 10.1021/acs.macromol.6b02632
Subject(s) - polymer , quantum entanglement , ring (chemistry) , diffusion , fick's laws of diffusion , linear polymer , chemical physics , scaling , materials science , chemistry , nanotechnology , molecular physics , physics , thermodynamics , quantum mechanics , composite material , organic chemistry , geometry , mathematics , quantum
The motion of nanoparticles (NPs) in entangled 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 > 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.