Abstract
We utilize inelastic incoherent neutron scattering (INS) to quantify how fullerenes affectthe ‘fast’ molecular dynamics of a family of polystyrene related macromolecules. Inparticular, we prepared bulk nanocomposites of (hydrogenous and ring-deuterated)polystyrene and poly(4-methyl styrene) using a rapid precipitation method where theC60 relative mass fraction ranged from 0% to 4%. Elastic window scan measurements, using a high resolution(0.9 µeV) backscattering spectrometer, are reported over a wide temperature range (2–450 K).Apparent Debye–Waller (DW) factors , characterizing the mean-square amplitude of proton displacements, are determined as a function of temperature,T. We find thatthe addition of C60 to these polymers leads to a progressive increase in relative to the pure polymer value over the entire temperature range investigated, where theeffect is larger for larger nanoparticle concentration. This general trend seems to indicate that theC60 nanoparticlesplasticize the fast (≈10−15 s) local (≈1 Å) dynamics of these polymer glasses. Generally, we expect nanoparticle additives to affectpolymer dynamics in a similar fashion to thin films in the sense that the high interfacialarea may cause both a speeding up and slowing down of the glass state dynamicsdepending on the polymer–surface interaction.
Published Version
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