Conductive network formation of carbon nanotubes in elastic polymer microfibers and its effect on the electrical conductance: Experiment and simulation

Confinement effects on the mechanical heterogeneity of polymer fiber glasses

Both polymer fiber glasses and bulk polymer glasses exhibit nonlinear mechanical responses under uniaxial deformation. In polymer fibers, however, polymer chains are confined strongly and the surface area is relatively large compared to their volume. The confinement and the surface may lead to the spatially heterogeneous relaxation of chains in polymer fibers. In this work we perform molecular dynamics simulations and investigate the relation between the heterogeneous dynamics and the nonlinear mechanical responses at a molecular level. Our molecular simulations capture successfully not only the nonlinear mechanical response but also the dependence of mechanical properties on the strain rate of typical polymer glasses as in experiments. We find that the local elastic modulus and the nonaffine displacement are spatially heterogeneous in the pre-yield regime, which results in a lower elastic modulus for polymer fibers than bulk polymer glasses. In the post-yield regime, those mechanical properties become relatively homogeneous. Monomers with large nonaffine displacement are localized mainly at the interfacial region in the pre-yield regime while highly nonaffine monomers are distributed throughout the fibers in the post-yield regime. We show that the nonaffine displacement during deformation relates closely to the mechanical response of the polymer fibers. We also find that in the strain-hardening regime there is a significant difference in the energetic contribution to the stress between polymer fibers and bulk polymers, for which the modulus of the strain-hardening regime of the polymer fibers is smaller than that of bulk polymers.

Synergistic effect in improving the electrical conductivity in polymer nanocomposites by mixing spherical and rod-shaped fillers

In this work, coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulation is adopted to investigate the effect of hybrid fillers [nanospheres (NSs) and nanorods (NRs)] on the conductive probability of polymer nanocomposites (PNCs) in the quiescent state and under the shear field. The percolation threshold gradually rises as the volume fraction ratio (α) of NSs to all the fillers increases in the quiescent state. Compared to the NSs, the greater number of beads in the NRs help them connect to other NRs to form the conductive network. Meanwhile, compared to NSs, more NRs participate in building the conductive network. A transition from the synergistic effect to the antagonistic effect occurs as the NS-NR tunneling distance is reduced. Furthermore, the shear field induces a more direct aggregation structure of NSs, which act as linkers between fillers to protect the conductive network. This result is confirmed by the fact that more NSs occupy the conductive network under the shear field. As a result, the percolation threshold declines with increasing shear rate. Finally, compared to in the quiescent state, the percolation threshold increases at α = 0.0 and remains nearly unchanged for α = 0.25 under the shear field, while it gradually decreases for α≥ 0.5. In total, the results further our understanding of how to realize the synergistic effect between NSs and NRs when forming a conductive network of PNCs.

Spatial Dependence of Non-Gaussian Diffusion of Nanoparticles in Free-Standing Thin Polymer Films

The addition of nanoparticles (NPs) to a free-standing polymer film affects the properties of the film such as viscosity and glass transition temperature. Recent experiments, for example, showed that the glass transition temperature of thin polymer films was dependent on how NPs were distributed within the polymer films. However, the spatial arrangement of NPs in free-standing polymer films and its effect on the diffusion of NPs and polymers remain elusive at a molecular level. In this study, we employ generic coarse-grained models for polymers and NPs and perform extensive molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the diffusion of polymers and NPs in free-standing thin polymer films. We find that small NPs are likely to stay at the interfacial region of the polymer film, while large NPs tend to stay at the center of the film. On the other hand, as the interaction between a NP and a monomer becomes more attractive, the NP is more likely to be placed at the film center. The diffusion of monomers slows down slightly as more NPs are added to the film. Interestingly, the NP diffusion is dependent strongly on the spatial arrangement of the NPs: NPs at the interfacial region diffuse faster and undergo more non-Gaussian diffusion than NPs at the film center, which implies that the interfacial region would be more mobile and dynamically heterogeneous than the film center. We also find that the mechanism for non-Gaussian diffusion of NPs at the film center differs from that at the interfacial region and that the NP diffusion would reflect the local viscosity of the polymer films.

Molecular dynamics simulation of the electrical conductive network formation of polymer nanocomposites with polymer-grafted nanorods

Grafting chains on the surface of a filler is an effective strategy to tune and control the filler conductive network, which can be utilized to fabricate polymer nanocomposites (PNCs) with high electrical conductivity.

Controlling the electrical conductive network formation of polymer nanocomposites via polymer functionalization

By adopting coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations, the effect of polymer functionalization on the relationship between the microstructure and the electric percolation probability of nanorod filled polymer nanocomposites has been investigated. At a low chain functionalization degree, the nanorods in the polymer matrix form isolated aggregates with a local order structure. At a moderate chain functionalization degree, the local order structure of the nanorod aggregate is gradually broken up. Meanwhile, excessive functionalization chain beads can connect the isolated aggregates together, which leads to the maximum size of nanorod aggregation. At a high chain functionalization degree, it forms a single nanorod structure in the matrix. As a result, the highest percolation probability of the materials appears at the moderate chain functionalization degree, which is attributed to the formation of the tightly connected nanorod network by analyzing the main cluster. In addition, this optimum chain functionalization degree exists at two chain functionalization modes (random and diblock). Lastly, under the tensile field, even though the contact distance between nanorods nearly remains unchanged, the topological structure of the percolation network is broken down. While under the shear field, the contact distance between nanorods increases and the topological structure of the percolation network is broken down, which leads to a decrease in the percolation probability. In total, the topological structure of the percolation network dominates the percolation probability, which is not a necessary connection with the contact distance between nanorods. In summary, this work presents further understanding of the electric conductive properties of nanorod-filled nanocomposites with functionalized polymers.