Phase Behavior of Polymer Nanocomposite Systems with Attractive Particle-Polymer Interactions

Polymer nanocomposites (PNCs) are a unique class of materials that can have improved mechanical, thermal, electrical, or optical properties compared to neat polymers. The property improvements are highly dependent on the dispersion state of the filler nanoparticles. PNC systems with attractive particle-polymer interactions have been explored as a way to improve particle dispersion, but the phase space of these systems has not been thoroughly explored with a method that accounts for thermal fluctuations. We have developed Polymer Field Theoretic methods to efficiently generate phase diagrams without ignoring thermal fluctuations. In this presentation, I will describe this method and demonstrate its ability to predict particle dispersion for real PNC materials.