Entropic effects on disordered hyperuniformity in heterogeneous polymer grafted nanoparticle (PGNP) thin film systems

Polymer grafted nanoparticles (PGNP) systems tend to maximize the system’s configurational entropy by adjusting their packing that mediate the interactions between them. We examine these aspects in the context of disordered hyperuniformity in particle brush-based single particle nanocomposites. In the first scenario of single particle nanocomposites, solution flow-coated chemically similar polymer brush thin film systems of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), and poly(styrene-acrylonitrile) (PSAN, AN content14%) with silica (SiO₂) nanoparticle cores were individually examined by AFM, and their 2D-FFT with radial averaged profiles analyzed for disordered hyperuniformity, and GISAXS as well. We also document how binary mixtures of PMMA PGNP thin film systems, with different lengths of polymer brushes, and different core dimensions are co-ordinated in the context of disordered hyperuniformity. Likewise, for PSAN homopolymer mixtures. A unique hyperbranched polymer nanogel core brush particle system was studied with respect to the controlled variation of softness parameter, brush architecture and elastic properties of the core. The effects of solvent flow-casting condition, film thickness as layers build-up, and thermal and solvent annealing on relaxation of the 2D packing of PGNPs are measured.