Polymer-Grafted-Nanoparticle Surfactants

We have studied the surface behavior of nanoparticles, which are lightly grafted with polymer chains, when they are mixed with matrix chains of the same architecture as the grafts. We consider the particular case where the nanoparticle core and the grafted polymer chains energetically dislike each other and show that the extent of surface segregation of these hairy nanoparticles and their self-assembly into a variety of structures can be tuned by varying the number and the length of the grafted chains and the matrix chain length. These results unequivocally show that grafted nanoparticles in polymer matrices behave akin to block copolymers (or amphiphiles) in selective solvents, with readily controllable surface behavior.