Nanorods with Different Surface Properties in Directing the Compatibilization Behavior and the Morphological Transition of Immiscible Polymer Blends in Both Shear and Shear-Free Conditions

Abstract

To explore the mechanism of how the nanorod surface properties regulate the compatibilization behavior and the morphology transition in demixing polymer blends, we perform dissipative particle dynamics simulations and study the impact of three typical nanorods on the phase separation kinetics and structure as well as their location and arrangement under both shear-free and shear conditions with the variation of nanorod–polymer affinity parameters. Depending on the dispersion and location of nanorods, blends in the quiescent case either undergo full phase separation and generate bulky two-phase morphology, or experience microphase separation and form BμE-like structure, or proceed viscoelastic phase separation and take the kinetically trapped cocontinuous network morphology, whereas shear flow can either accelerate domain coarsening or strongly impact the phase behavior through shear-induced bulk phase separation or shear-induced ordering transition. Particularly, the shear-induced lamellar phase in Janus nanorod-filled blends chooses parallel orientation and displays the lateral ordering within layers.

Molecular modelling of supramolecular one dimensional polymers

“…These might require solvent-free models 99 and mesoscale methods such as dissipative particle dynamics. 100,101 It is also vital to derive transferable CG force elds for various moieties and functional groups used in supramolecular polymers, so that the structure and phenomena exhibited by such assemblies can be computed in near real time to interpret new experiments. This will form one of the immediate tasks in our research group.…”

Imparting Gradient and Oriented Characters to Cocontinuous Structure for Improving Integrated Performance

“…Pioneering works indicate that the cocontinuous structure is sensitive to the content of composition, temperature, and shear stress, and this provides a good basis for the manipulation of the cocontinuous structure. [7,[26][27][28][29][30] The cocontinuous structure can be formed within a range of content with a high level continuity, and the phase size of cocontinuous structure varies at different contents. [7] Furthermore, the cocontinuous structure Inspired by the oriented, gradient, and heterogeneous characters of natural materials, an oriented and gradient cocontinuous structure is designed to obtain excellent mechanical performance via a gradient shear stress and temperature during melt processing.…”

“…Pioneering works indicate that the cocontinuous structure is sensitive to the content of composition, temperature, and shear stress, and this provides a good basis for the manipulation of the cocontinuous structure. [ 7,26–30 ] The cocontinuous structure can be formed within a range of content with a high level continuity, and the phase size of cocontinuous structure varies at different contents. [ 7 ] Furthermore, the cocontinuous structure can be effectively controlled using thermal treatment.…”

Flame Retardant Polymer Nanocomposites and Interfaces

“…Although the block or graft copolymers could easily solve the problem, the synthesizing procedure is often system specific and expensive for industrial applications [41]. Thus, research on numerous possible compatibilizers have been done over several decades [42][43][44][45]. As briefly mentioned before, Araki et al have developed a theory for explaining the effect of clay in compatibilizing polymer blends [30].…”