title: Percolation of high-density polymer regions in nanocomposites: the underlying property for mechanical reinforcement.
abstract: Polymer nanocomposites have shown to exhibit improved mechanical properties compared to their pure host polymers. These property changes have been primarily attributed to the nature of polymer/nanoparticle interactions. Molecular dynamics simulations of model polymer nanocomposites have provided new insights into the molecular origin of property-changes in these nanocomposites. It was observed that addition of nanoparticles, induced adsorption of monomer segments onto the surface of nanoparticles creating high-density regions of polymer segments in the interfacial zones. A closer look into the morphology of these regions surrounding the nanoparticles revealed that mechanical reinforcement and changes in flow properties may be attributed to the formation of a percolated network of these high-density regions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, West Bengal, India.
authors.forename: Venkat
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Padmanabhan