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A New Self-Consistent Field Model of Polymer/Nanoparticle Mixture

Field-theoretical method is efficient in predicting assembling structures of polymeric systems. However, it’s challenging to generalize this method to study the polymer/nanoparticle mixture due to its multi-scale nature. Here, we develop a new field-based model which unifies the nanoparticle descrip...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Chen, Kang, Li, Hui-shu, Zhang, Bo-kai, Li, Jian, Tian, Wen-de
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4734332/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26829174
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep20355
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author Chen, Kang
Li, Hui-shu
Zhang, Bo-kai
Li, Jian
Tian, Wen-de
author_facet Chen, Kang
Li, Hui-shu
Zhang, Bo-kai
Li, Jian
Tian, Wen-de
author_sort Chen, Kang
collection PubMed
description Field-theoretical method is efficient in predicting assembling structures of polymeric systems. However, it’s challenging to generalize this method to study the polymer/nanoparticle mixture due to its multi-scale nature. Here, we develop a new field-based model which unifies the nanoparticle description with the polymer field within the self-consistent field theory. Instead of being “ensemble-averaged” continuous distribution, the particle density in the final morphology can represent individual particles located at preferred positions. The discreteness of particle density allows our model to properly address the polymer-particle interface and the excluded-volume interaction. We use this model to study the simplest system of nanoparticles immersed in the dense homopolymer solution. The flexibility of tuning the interfacial details allows our model to capture the rich phenomena such as bridging aggregation and depletion attraction. Insights are obtained on the enthalpic and/or entropic origin of the structural variation due to the competition between depletion and interfacial interaction. This approach is readily extendable to the study of more complex polymer-based nanocomposites or biology-related systems, such as dendrimer/drug encapsulation and membrane/particle assembly.
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spelling pubmed-47343322016-02-05 A New Self-Consistent Field Model of Polymer/Nanoparticle Mixture Chen, Kang Li, Hui-shu Zhang, Bo-kai Li, Jian Tian, Wen-de Sci Rep Article Field-theoretical method is efficient in predicting assembling structures of polymeric systems. However, it’s challenging to generalize this method to study the polymer/nanoparticle mixture due to its multi-scale nature. Here, we develop a new field-based model which unifies the nanoparticle description with the polymer field within the self-consistent field theory. Instead of being “ensemble-averaged” continuous distribution, the particle density in the final morphology can represent individual particles located at preferred positions. The discreteness of particle density allows our model to properly address the polymer-particle interface and the excluded-volume interaction. We use this model to study the simplest system of nanoparticles immersed in the dense homopolymer solution. The flexibility of tuning the interfacial details allows our model to capture the rich phenomena such as bridging aggregation and depletion attraction. Insights are obtained on the enthalpic and/or entropic origin of the structural variation due to the competition between depletion and interfacial interaction. This approach is readily extendable to the study of more complex polymer-based nanocomposites or biology-related systems, such as dendrimer/drug encapsulation and membrane/particle assembly. Nature Publishing Group 2016-02-01 /pmc/articles/PMC4734332/ /pubmed/26829174 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep20355 Text en Copyright © 2016, Macmillan Publishers Limited http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
spellingShingle Article
Chen, Kang
Li, Hui-shu
Zhang, Bo-kai
Li, Jian
Tian, Wen-de
A New Self-Consistent Field Model of Polymer/Nanoparticle Mixture
title A New Self-Consistent Field Model of Polymer/Nanoparticle Mixture
title_full A New Self-Consistent Field Model of Polymer/Nanoparticle Mixture
title_fullStr A New Self-Consistent Field Model of Polymer/Nanoparticle Mixture
title_full_unstemmed A New Self-Consistent Field Model of Polymer/Nanoparticle Mixture
title_short A New Self-Consistent Field Model of Polymer/Nanoparticle Mixture
title_sort new self-consistent field model of polymer/nanoparticle mixture
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4734332/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26829174
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep20355
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