Dynamics of stable contact formation bewteen a nanoparticle and a highly repulsive polymer layer

Assembling nanoparticles inside a polymer brush layer is crucial in developing new hybrid materials. Depending on the application, these materials may require a combination of nanoparticle and polymer with weak interaction strengths. We use molecular dynamics simulations to study the assembly and dynamics of nanoparticles in a grafted polymer layer in the presence of a favorable solvent. The presence of the favorable solvent ensures a stable interaction of the nanoparticle with the polymer brush independent of the nanoparticle-polymer interaction strength and the size of the nanoparticle. For strong nanoparticle-polymer interactions, the nanoparticle remains completely inside the polymer layer while for weak interactions, the nanoparticle mostly remains adsorbed on the surface of the brush.