Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 109, Issue 26, Pages 10187-10192Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1202171109
Keywords
polymer nanocomposites; polymer bridging; colloidal aggregation; depletion force
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Funding
- Marie Curie Training Network ITN-COMPLOIDS [234810]
- Oppenheimer Fund
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Nanostructured materials based on colloidal particles embedded in a polymer network are used in a variety of applications ranging from nanocomposite rubbers to organic-inorganic hybrid solar cells. Further, polymer-network-mediated colloidal interactions are highly relevant to biological studies whereby polymer hydrogels are commonly employed to probe the mechanical response of living cells, which can determine their biological function in physiological environments. The performance of nanomaterials crucially relies upon the spatial organization of the colloidal particles within the polymer network that depends, in turn, on the effective interactions between the particles in the medium. Existing models based on nonlocal equilibrium thermodynamics fail to clarify the nature of these interactions, precluding the way toward the rational design of polymer-composite materials. In this article, we present a predictive analytical theory of these interactions based on a coarse-grained model for polymer networks. We apply the theory to the case of colloids partially embedded in cross-linked polymer substrates and clarify the origin of attractive interactions recently observed experimentally. Monte Carlo simulation results that quantitatively confirm the theoretical predictions are also presented.
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