(363j) Perspective of Spectroscopy in Structure, Function, and Formation Mechanism of Polymer Nanocomposites

Polymer nanocomposites have proven enormous contributions to many noteworthy technological fields. The rational design of such materials toward desired structure and properties requires powerful tools that can help elucidate the correlation between starting chemical components and the final products. Nevertheless, it is challenging especially for multifunctional polymer nanocomposites that integrate both functionalities and properties into one entity. Here we discuss the application of two particular spectroscopic techniques which have helped elucidate the formation mechanism of the PNCs, and meanwhile infer the function mechanism such as in the heavy metal remediation process. One is the surface molecular spectroscopy XPS that has been used to identify elemental composition and chemical speciation in the nanoscale region of the PANI-based nanocomposites before and after heavy metal remediation, which provided very insightful mechanism for the redox process. Another is the 57Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy that has been applied to probe the varied iron species in the PNCs, which indicated the interfacial interactions between the macromolecule chain and the iron nanoparticle surfaces and further attributed to the unique nanofiller structure formation of the polyolefin nanocomposites.