PROCESSABLE SELF-ORGANIZING NANOPARTICLES

摘要

A method of forming a composition includes adding together a plurality of particle brush systems wherein each of the particle brush systems includes a particle and a polymer brush including a plurality of polymer chains attached to the particle. The plurality of polymer chains of the polymer brush exhibit two chain conformations as the degree of polymerization of the polymer chains increases so that the polymer brush includes a concentrated polymer brush region with stretched polymer chains and a semi-dilute polymer brush region with relaxed chains that is radially outside of the concentrated polymer brush region. The degree of polymerization of the polymer brush is no less than 10% less than a critical degree of polymerization and no more than 20% greater than the critical degree of polymerization. The critical degree of polymerization is defined as the degree of polymerization required to achieve a transition from the concentrated polymer brush region to the semi-dilute polymer brush region.