Towards Hyperuniform Hybrid Materials with Self-Heal Ability

Polymer-modified nanoparticles or colloids have emerged as a platform to fabricate multifunctional hybrid materials that derive novel property combinations from the ability to tailor microstructure and properties of particulate-based materials. Fundamental to this control are recent advances in surface-initiated reversible deactivation radical polymerization that enables precise tailoring of the molecular characteristics of brush chains and hence the interactions and assembly behavior of brush particle systems in the melt state.



This presentation will review recent advances in realizing hybrid materials with novel property combinations. In the first part, the possibility to realize disordered hyperuniform (DH) hybrid materials by brush particle assembly will be discussed. DH microstructures represent an ‘exotic state of matter’ that feature both, isotropic structure and properties as well as the suppression of long wavelength fluctuations. Small angle neutron scattering results reveal the role of brush molecular characteristics on the degree of hyperuniformity of brush particle-based materials and allow to establish design guidelines to realize DH hybrid materials with high inorganic content. In a second part, this presentation will discuss opportunities to realize hybrid materials with repair-and-recall capability based on copolymer-brush particle systems. Copolymers (based on poly(butylacrylate/methyl methacrylate), P(BA/MMA) with interlocking chain architectures are shown to feature self-heal ability. When applied to brush particle materials, the frustration due to immobile particle cores creates a ‘double network’ effect that imparts dual self-heal and shape memory characteristics. Blending of copolymer-brush particle hybrids with linear copolymers of suitable compositions enables the synthesis of self-healing hybrid materials with modulus in excess of 1 GPa.