More Like this

1. Dynamics of polymer segments, polymer chains, and nanoparticles in polymer nanocomposite melts: A review

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.progpolymsci.2020.101242  

   Bailey, Eric J.; Winey, Karen I. (June 2020, Progress in Polymer Science)
2. Polymer Tacticity Effects in Polymer–Lanthanide Chelation Thermodynamics

   https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.macromol.3c01163  

   Archer, William R.; Chen, Taoyi; Vaissier Welborn, Valerie; Schulz, Michael D. (November 2023, Macromolecules)
3. Initiation and Polymer Density of Conjugated Polymer Brushes

   https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcb.0c06923  

   VonWald, Ian A.; Frye, S. Gaither; Moog, Mark M.; Donley, Carrie L.; Tsui, Frank; You, Wei (October 2020, The Journal of Physical Chemistry B)

   null (Ed.)
4. Polymer Glasses

   https://doi.org/10.1002/9783527815562.mme0064  

   Connie B. Roth (March 2022, Macromolecular Engineering: From Precise Synthesis to Macroscopic Materials and Applications)

   Matyjaszewski, Krzysztof; Gnanou, Yves; Hadjichristidis, Nikos; Muthukumar, Murugappan (Ed.)

   Polymers exist in the glass state for a wide range of applications. The slow and limited crystallizability of polymers means that solid polymer materials are either wholly or in part glassy, giving them great importance. The glass is a nonequilibrium amorphous state that occurs because the cooperative molecular dynamics become kinetically trapped on cooling as the available thermal energy for molecular motion decreases. This article aims to provide the reader with a molecular picture of what this packing frustration that causes glass formation means for polymers. Experimental considerations for accurately measuring the glass transition temperature 𝑇𝑔 given this nonequilibrium nature will be discussed. Basic concepts underpinning theoretical efforts to model the glass transition will be summarized to provide the reader with a lexicon and paradigm for understanding different approaches used in the field to capture the main characteristics of glasses. Current research areas of interest in polymer glasses will be briefly outlined. Hopefully, this article will provide the beginning investigator a starting point for their own studies. 

   more » « less
5. Detecting bound polymer layers in attractive polymer–nanoparticle hybrids

   https://doi.org/10.1039/D1NR02395K  

   Emamy, Hamed; Starr, Francis W.; Kumar, Sanat K. (August 2021, Nanoscale)

   When polymer–nanoparticle (NP) attractions are sufficiently strong, a bound polymer layer with a distinct dynamic signature spontaneously forms at the NP interface. A similar phenomenon occurs near a fixed attractive substrate for thin polymer films. While our previous simulations fixed the NPs to examine the dilute limit, here, we allow the NP to move. Our goal is to investigate how NP mobility affects the signature of the bound layer. For small NPs that are relatively mobile, the bound layer is slaved to the motion of the NP, and the signature of the bound layer relaxation in the intermediate scattering function essentially disappears. The slow relaxation of the bound layer can be recovered when the scattering function is measured in the NP reference frame, but this process would be challenging to implement in experimental systems with multiple NPs. Instead, we use the counterintuitive result that the NP mass affects its mobility in the nanoscale limit, along with the more expected result that the bound layer increases the effective NP mass, to suggest that the signature of the bound polymer manifests as a change in NP diffusivity. These findings allow us to rationalize and quantitatively understand the results of recent experiments focused on measuring NP diffusivity with either physically adsorbed or chemically end-grafted chains. 

   more » « less