An unexpected N-dependence in the viscosity reduction in all-polymer nanocomposite.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 31804474.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-019-13410-z and PMC identifier 6895191.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Adding small nanoparticles (NPs) into polymer melt can lead to a non-Einstein-like decrease in viscosity. However, the underlying mechanism remains a long-standing unsolved puzzle. Here, for an all-polymer nanocomposite formed by linear polystyrene (PS) chains and PS single-chain nanoparticles (SCNPs), we perform large-scale molecular dynamics simulations and experimental rheology measurements. We show that with a fixed (small) loading of the SCNP, viscosity reduction (VR) effect can be largely amplified with an increase in matrix chain length [Formula: see text], and that the system with longer polymer chains will have a larger VR. We demonstrate that such [Formula: see text]-dependent VR can be attributed to the friction reduction experienced by polymer segment blobs which have similar size and interact directly with these SCNPs. A theoretical model is proposed based on the tube model. We demonstrate that it can well describe the friction reduction experienced by melt polymers and the VR effect in these composite systems.