Tailoring disordered hyperunifomity of brush particle hybrid materials

Disordered hyperuniform materials represent an 'exotic' class of materials that is characterized by the suppression of long-wavelength fluctuations and the absence of long-range order. The concurrence of these otherwise mutually exclusive structure characteristics holds opportunities for the fabrication of heterogeneous materials with novel physical property combinations that could be relevant to a wide range of innovative material technologies. Simulation studies have suggested steric crowding, such as in star or bottlebrush polymer systems, to suppress long-range density fluctuations. Intriguing opportunities for advancing the fundamental understanding of hyperuniformity and its application to functional material design arise from extending the concept to polymer-tethered colloids (aka 'brush particles'). Brush particles are topologically related to star polymers and have emerged as a platform for the fabrication of functional hybrid materials. This contribution presents a systematic evaluation of the effect of chain length, molecular weight dispersity and density of grafted chains as well as the presence of linear polymer additives on the degree of hyperuniformity of brush assembly structures in the thin film and bulk state. Small angle neutron scattering reveals that hyperunifomity is favored in pristine and semidiluate brush particle systems. The fabrication of near-hyperuniform hybrids featuring strucutral color and self-heal ability will be demonstrated..