Surface-induced First Order Transition in Athermal Polymer/Nanoparticle Blends
Soft Condensed Matter
2009-11-13 v1
Abstract
We investigate the phase behavior of athermal polymer/nanoparticle blends near a hard substrate. We apply the density functional theory of Tripathi and Chapman to these blends. We find a first order phase transition where the nanoparticles expel the polymer from the surface to form a monolayer. The transition density depends on the polymer length and the system bulk density. The effect is due to the packing entropy of the species and configurational entropy of the polymer. The simplicity of the system allows us to understand the so-called ``entropic-push'' observed in experiments.
Cite
@article{arxiv.0710.5883,
title = {Surface-induced First Order Transition in Athermal Polymer/Nanoparticle Blends},
author = {E. S. McGarrity and A. L. Frischknecht and L. J. D. Frink and M. E. Mackay},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0710.5883},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
4 pages, 4 figures, Editorially accepted by Phys. Rev. Lett., Awaiting publication in the Journal