Interfacial Structure and Interactions in Clay-Polymer Nanocomposites

In the past decade, polymers reinforced with nanoparticles (e.g., spherical nanoparticles, nanotubes, clay platelets) have been emerged as a new class of materials and received tremendous attention in both scientific and industrial communities. Such polymer nanocomposites have demonstrated novel and often much improved mechanical, thermal, electrical and optical properties unattainable with their macro- and micro-counterparts. Such property enhancement is believed to be closely related to the molecular structure and interactions at the particle-polymer interface. Fundamental understanding of such structure and interactions will help us explore the enhanced properties and develop polymer nanocomposites with controlled structures and properties. In this talk, we will present the recent work toward such fundamental understanding in organoclays and nanocomposites by meaning of molecular modelling.

Keywords: polymer nanocomposites, molecular modelling, nanoparticles, interfacial interaction

References

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