Abstract
A bio-inspired design of polyethylene nanocomposites is presented in this letter using branched carbon nanotubes (BCNTs) as reinforcements. Using coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations, we demonstrate that the pullout strength of the proposed BCNT nanofibers can be an order of magnitude higher than that of CNT reinforcements. The drastically improved interfacial shearing strength is found to be strongly dependent on the geometry of nanofibers, the molecular weight of matrix polymers, and the pullout velocity. By analyzing the time-evolving molecular configurations of BCNT nanofibers and surrounding polymer chains, the underlying strengthening mechanisms are discussed and strategies for further improvement are suggested.
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