Thermal properties of particle brush materials: Effect of polymer graft architecture on the glass transition temperature in polymer-grafted colloidal systems

Alei Dang, Chin Ming Hui, Rachel Ferebee, Joshua Kubiak, Tiehu Li, Krzysztof Matyjaszewski, Michael R. Bockstaller

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

30 Scopus citations

Abstract

The governing parameters controlling the glass transition temperature of polymer-grafted particle systems are analyzed for the particular case of polystyrene (PS)-grafted silica colloids in the dense grafting limit. At a given degree of polymerization of surface-grafted chains the glass transition temperature is found to increase as compared to linear chain polymers of equivalent degree of polymerization. The difference in the glass transition temperature between polymer-grafted particle systems and their respective linear polymer analogs increases with decreasing degree of polymerization of surface-grafted chains and levels off at similar plateau values for particle brushes of distinct particle core size. The trend toward increased glass transition temperature is interpreted as a consequence of the increased steric hindrance in polymer-grafted particles that counteracts the relaxation of surface-grafted polymer chains. The increase in glass transition temperature is shown to be approximately consistent with the chain conformational regimes that are predicted on the basis of a Daoud-Cotton type scaling model.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)9-16
Number of pages8
JournalMacromolecular Symposia
Volume331-332
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2013

Keywords

  • ATRP
  • Brush
  • Glass transition
  • Nanocomposite
  • Silica

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