Dispersion of Polymer-Grafted Nanoparticles in Polymer Thin Films

Effective dispersion of nanoparticles in polymer thin films is important for enhanced material properties, used for applications like organic electronic devices, sensors, and structural materials. Recent experiments on polymer-grafted nanoparticles dispersed in polymer thin films explored the entropically-driven phase behavior of the system as a function of the lengths of the grafted and free chains and the size of the particle compared to the sizes of each chain type. By modeling the interactions between a polymer-grafted particle and the substrate using self-consistent field theory, we capture the essential aspects of the system and report the theoretical phase behavior as a function of the key parameters. Because of the flexibility of our model for varying system parameters, it provides a helpful predictive tool for future experimental work on this system.