Picu R.C., Ozmusul M.S.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, US
Keywords: bound polymer layer, chain dynamics, nanocomposites
The effect of a curved solid wall on the conformations of long, flexible polymer chains is studied in a dense polymer system by means of lattice Monte Carlo simulations. The differences with respect to the flat interface case are discussed. In the athermal limit the wall does not perturb the atom number density, which is constant throughout the volume of the polymer, however the chan end density is higher at the wall compared to the bulk and the bonds are preferentially oriented parallel to the interface. The internsity of these effects decreases with increasing wall curvature. These conclusions preserve qualitatively in presence of energetic interactions. The density at the wall decreases and the chaing end segregation increases with increasing wall curvature, which suggests that the experimentally observed reduction in chain mobility with filler radius has, in par, an entropic origin.
Journal: TechConnect Briefs
Volume: 2, Technical Proceedings of the 2002 International Conference on Computational Nanoscience and Nanotechnology
Published: April 22, 2002
Pages: 399 - 402
Industry sector: Advanced Materials & Manufacturing
Topic: Informatics, Modeling & Simulation
ISBN: 0-9708275-6-3