Influence of Hair Density and Hair Length on Interparticle Interactions of Spherical Polymer Brushes in a Homopolymer Matrix

The dynamics of hairy spherical nanoparticles in a melt of linear polymer chains has been investigated by mechanical spectroscopy as a function of particle topology and concentration. Using a simple free volume approach for the data analysis of the structural relaxation time vs concentration and the well-known hard-sphere result as a reference, a semiquantitative measure for the interparticle interactions, that is particle deformability/softness, and the effective particle size compared to the size of a nonswollen spherical brush has been determined. For these studies, model particles of hairy nanoparticles differing in either hair length or grafting density have been prepared. In contrast …