title: Nanoparticle Motion in Entangled Melts of Linear and Nonconcatenated Ring Polymers.
abstract: The motion of nanoparticles (NPs) in entangled melts of linear polymers and nonconcatenated ring polymers are compared by large-scale molecular dynamics simulations. The comparison provides a paradigm for the effects of polymer architecture on the dynamical coupling between NPs and polymers in nanocomposites. Strongly suppressed motion of NPs with diameterdlarger than the entanglement spacingais observed in a melt of linear polymers before the onset of Fickian NP diffusion. This strong suppression of NP motion occurs progressively asdexceedsaand is related to the hopping diffusion of NPs in the entanglement network. In contrast to the NP motion in linear polymers, the motion of NPs withd>ain ring polymers is not as strongly suppressed prior to Fickian diffusion. The diffusion coefficientDdecreases with increasingdmuch slower in entangled rings than in entangled linear chains. NP motion in entangled nonconcatenated ring polymers is understood through a scaling analysis of the coupling between NP motion and the self-similar entangled dynamics of ring polymers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of North Carolina , Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, United States.
authors.forename: Ting
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ge
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Karnataka , Surathkal, Mangalore 575025, India.
authors.forename: Jagannathan T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Kalathi
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Ackermannweg 10, 55128 Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Jonathan D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Halverson
authors.affiliation: Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185, United States.
authors.forename: Gary S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Grest
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of North Carolina , Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, United States.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rubinstein