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Chan SY, Jhalaria M, Huang Y, Li R, Benicewicz BC, Durning CJ, Vo T, Kumar SK. Local Structure of Polymer-Grafted Nanoparticle Melts. ACS NANO 2022; 16:10404-10411. [PMID: 35816726 DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.2c00643] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Polymer-grafted nanoparticle (GNP) membranes show unexpected gas transport enhancements relative to the neat polymer, with a maximum as a function of graft molecular weight (MWg ≈ 100 kDa) for sufficiently high grafting densities. The structural origins of this behavior are unclear. Simulations suggest that polymer segments are stretched near the nanoparticle (NP) surface and form a dry layer, while more distal chain fragments are in their undeformed Gaussian states and interpenetrate with segments from neighboring NPs. This theoretical basis is derived by considering the behavior of two adjacent NPs; how this behavior is modified by multi-NP effects relevant to gas separation membranes is unexplored. Here, we measure and interpret SAXS data for poly(methyl acrylate)-grafted silica NPs and find that for very low MWgs, contact between GNPs obeys the two-NP theory─namely that the NPs act like hard spheres, with radii that are linear combinations of the NP core sizes and the dry zone dimensions; thus, the interpenetration zones relax into the interstitial spaces. For chains with MWg > 100 kDa, the interpenetration zones are in the contact regions between two NPs. These results suggest that for MWgs below the transition, gas primarily moves through a series of dry zones with favorable transport, with the interpenetration zone with less favorable transport properties in parallel. For higher MWgs, the dry and interpenetration zones are in series, resulting in a decrease in transport enhancement. The MWg at the transport maximum then corresponds to the chain length with the largest, unfavorable stretching free energy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sophia Y Chan
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, United States
| | - Mayank Jhalaria
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, United States
| | - Yucheng Huang
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29208, United States
| | - Ruipeng Li
- National Synchrotron Light Source II, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, United States
| | - Brian C Benicewicz
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29208, United States
| | - Christopher J Durning
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, United States
| | - Thi Vo
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, United States
| | - Sanat K Kumar
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, United States
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Bilchak CR, Jhalaria M, Huang Y, Abbas Z, Midya J, Benedetti FM, Parisi D, Egger W, Dickmann M, Minelli M, Doghieri F, Nikoubashman A, Durning CJ, Vlassopoulos D, Jestin J, Smith ZP, Benicewicz BC, Rubinstein M, Leibler L, Kumar SK. Tuning Selectivities in Gas Separation Membranes Based on Polymer-Grafted Nanoparticles. ACS NANO 2020; 14:17174-17183. [PMID: 33216546 DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.0c07049] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Polymer membranes are critical to many sustainability applications that require the size-based separation of gas mixtures. Despite their ubiquity, there is a continuing need to selectively affect the transport of different mixture components while enhancing mechanical strength and hindering aging. Polymer-grafted nanoparticles (GNPs) have recently been explored in the context of gas separations. Membranes made from pure GNPs have higher gas permeability and lower selectivity relative to the neat polymer because they have increased mean free volume. Going beyond this ability to manipulate the mean free volume by grafting chains to a nanoparticle, the conceptual advance of the present work is our finding that GNPs are spatially heterogeneous transport media, with this free volume distribution being easily manipulated by the addition of free polymer. In particular, adding a small amount of appropriately chosen free polymer can increase the membrane gas selectivity by up to two orders of magnitude while only moderately reducing small gas permeability. Added short free chains, which are homogeneously distributed in the polymer layer of the GNP, reduce the permeability of all gases but yield no dramatic increases in selectivity. In contrast, free chains with length comparable to the grafts, which populate the interstitial pockets between GNPs, preferentially hinder the transport of the larger gas and thus result in large selectivity increases. This work thus establishes that we can favorably manipulate the selective gas transport properties of GNP membranes through the entropic effects associated with the addition of free chains.
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Affiliation(s)
- Connor R Bilchak
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, United States
| | - Mayank Jhalaria
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, United States
| | - Yucheng Huang
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29208, United States
| | - Zaid Abbas
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29208, United States
- Department of Chemistry, Wasit University, Hay Al-Rabea, Kut, Wasit, Iraq 52001
| | - Jiarul Midya
- Institute of Physics, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Staudingerweg 7, D-55128 Mainz, Germany
| | - Francesco M Benedetti
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
| | - Daniele Parisi
- University of Crete, Department of Materials Science and Technology and FORTH, Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser, GR-71110 Heraklion, Greece
| | - Werner Egger
- Universität der Bundeswehr München, Institut für Angewandte Physik und Messtechnik LRT2, Werner-Heisenberg-Weg 39, Neubiberg D-85577, Germany
| | - Marcel Dickmann
- Universität der Bundeswehr München, Institut für Angewandte Physik und Messtechnik LRT2, Werner-Heisenberg-Weg 39, Neubiberg D-85577, Germany
| | - Matteo Minelli
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Bologna, Bologna BO 40136, Italy
| | - Ferruccio Doghieri
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Bologna, Bologna BO 40136, Italy
| | - Arash Nikoubashman
- Institute of Physics, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Staudingerweg 7, D-55128 Mainz, Germany
| | - Christopher J Durning
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, United States
| | - Dimitris Vlassopoulos
- University of Crete, Department of Materials Science and Technology and FORTH, Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser, GR-71110 Heraklion, Greece
| | - Jacques Jestin
- Laboratoire Léon Brillouin (LLB), CEA/CNRS UMR 12, CEA Saclay, 91191 Gif/Yvette Cedex, France
| | - Zachary P Smith
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
| | - Brian C Benicewicz
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29208, United States
| | - Michael Rubinstein
- Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry and Physics, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708, United States
| | - Ludwik Leibler
- Laboratoire Gulliver, CNRS UMR 7083, ESPCI Paris, PSL Research University, 75005 Paris, France
| | - Sanat K Kumar
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, United States
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Brush-modified materials: Control of molecular architecture, assembly behavior, properties and applications. Prog Polym Sci 2020. [DOI: 10.1016/j.progpolymsci.2019.101180] [Citation(s) in RCA: 88] [Impact Index Per Article: 22.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
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Jhalaria M, Buenning E, Huang Y, Tyagi M, Zorn R, Zamponi M, García-Sakai V, Jestin J, Benicewicz BC, Kumar SK. Accelerated Local Dynamics in Matrix-Free Polymer Grafted Nanoparticles. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2019; 123:158003. [PMID: 31702322 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.123.158003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/15/2019] [Revised: 07/26/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
The tracer diffusion coefficient of six different permanent gases in polymer-grafted nanoparticle (GNP) membranes, i.e., neat GNP constructs with no solvent, show a maximum as a function of the grafted chain length at fixed grafting density. This trend is reproduced for two different NP sizes and three different polymer chemistries. We postulate that nonmonotonic changes in local, segmental friction as a function of graft chain length (at fixed grafting density) must underpin these effects, and use quasielastic neutron scattering to probe the self-motions of polymer chains at the relevant segmental scale (i.e., sampling local friction or viscosity). These data, when interpreted with a jump diffusion model, show that, in addition to the speeding-up in local chain dynamics, the elementary distance over which segments hop is strongly dependent on graft chain length. We therefore conclude that transport modifications in these GNP layers, which are underpinned by a structural transition from a concentrated brush to semidilute polymer brush, are a consequence of both spatial and temporal changes, both of which are likely driven by the lower polymer densities of the GNPs relative to the neat polymer.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mayank Jhalaria
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA
| | - Eileen Buenning
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA
| | - Yucheng Huang
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29201, USA
| | - Madhusudan Tyagi
- NIST Center for Neutron Research, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899-6102, USA
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
| | - Reiner Zorn
- Jülich Centre for Neutron Science (JCNS-1) and Institute for Complex Systems (ICS-1), Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, 52425 Jülich, Germany
| | - Michaela Zamponi
- Jülich Centre for Neutron Science at MLZ, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Lichtenbergstrasse 1, 85748 Garching, Germany
| | - Victoria García-Sakai
- ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Oxfordshire OX11 0QX, United Kingdom
| | - Jacques Jestin
- CEA Saclay, Laboratoire Léon Brillouin, F-91191 Gif Sur Yvette, France
| | - Brian C Benicewicz
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29201, USA
| | - Sanat K Kumar
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA
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Klonos PA, Goncharuk OV, Pakhlov EM, Sternik D, Deryło-Marczewska A, Kyritsis A, Gun’ko VM, Pissis P. Morphology, Molecular Dynamics, and Interfacial Phenomena in Systems Based on Silica Modified by Grafting Polydimethylsiloxane Chains and Physically Adsorbed Polydimethylsiloxane. Macromolecules 2019. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.macromol.9b00155] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/08/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Panagiotis A. Klonos
- Department of Physics, National Technical University of Athens, Zografou Campus, 15780 Athens, Greece
| | - Olena V. Goncharuk
- Chuiko Institute of Surface Chemistry, 17 General Naumov Street, 03164 Kiev, Ukraine
| | - Eugeniy M. Pakhlov
- Chuiko Institute of Surface Chemistry, 17 General Naumov Street, 03164 Kiev, Ukraine
| | - Dariusz Sternik
- Maria Curie-Sklodowska University, M. Curie-Sklodowska Sq. 3, 20-031 Lublin, Poland
| | | | - Apostolos Kyritsis
- Department of Physics, National Technical University of Athens, Zografou Campus, 15780 Athens, Greece
| | - Volodymyr M. Gun’ko
- Chuiko Institute of Surface Chemistry, 17 General Naumov Street, 03164 Kiev, Ukraine
| | - Polycarpos Pissis
- Department of Physics, National Technical University of Athens, Zografou Campus, 15780 Athens, Greece
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Bilchak CR, Huang Y, Benicewicz BC, Durning CJ, Kumar SK. High-Frequency Mechanical Behavior of Pure Polymer-Grafted Nanoparticle Constructs. ACS Macro Lett 2019; 8:294-298. [PMID: 35650831 DOI: 10.1021/acsmacrolett.8b00981] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
Abstract
Polymer-grafted nanoparticle (GNP) membranes show increased gas permeability relative to pure polymer analogs, with this effect evidently tunable through systematic variations in the grafted polymer chain length and grafting density. Additionally, these materials show less deleterious aging effects relative to the pure polymer. To better understand these issues, we explore the solid-state mechanical properties of GNP layers using quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) spectroscopy, which operates under conditions (≈5 MHz) that we believe are relevant to gas transport. The GNP's high-frequency storage moduli exhibit a characteristic increase with increasing nanoparticle (NP) core loading, consistent with past work on the reinforcement of polymers physically well mixed with bare NPs. However, these GNPs show a substantial, nonmonotonic decrease in loss as a function of chain length (at fixed grafting density), with the loss minimum corresponding to the chain length with the maximum gas permeability. We speculate that this feature corresponds to a dynamical transition, where the GNP membranes go from a jammed solid (colloid-like) to liquid-like (polymer-controlled) behavior with increasing chain length.
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Affiliation(s)
- Connor R. Bilchak
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, United States
| | - Yucheng Huang
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29201, United States
| | - Brian C. Benicewicz
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29201, United States
| | - Christopher J Durning
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, United States
| | - Sanat K. Kumar
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, United States
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Abstract
Grafting polymers to nanoparticle surfaces influences properties from the conformation of the polymer chains to the dispersion and assembly of nanoparticles within a polymeric material. Recently, a small body of work has begun to address the question of how grafting polymers to a nanoparticle surface impacts chain dynamics, and the resulting physical properties of a material. This Review discusses recent work that characterizes the structure and dynamics of polymers that are grafted to nanoparticles and opportunities for future research. Starting from the case of a single polymer chain attached to a nanoparticle core, this Review follows the structure of the chains as grafting density increases, and how this structure slows relaxation of polymer chains and affects macroscopic material properties.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael J A Hore
- Department of Macromolecular Science & Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, 10900 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, USA.
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