Products Cited in Publications Worldwide Regio‐Selective Mechanical Enhancement of Polymer‐Grafted Nanoparticle Composites via Light‐Mediated Crosslinking

Regio‐Selective Mechanical Enhancement of Polymer‐Grafted Nanoparticle Composites via Light‐Mediated Crosslinking

Kim, Kyungtae; Grummon, Benjamin C; Thrasher, Carl J; Macfarlane, Robert J

DOI: PMID:

Abstract

Polymer-brush-grafted nanoparticles (PGNPs) that can be covalently crosslinked post-processing enable the fabrication of mechanically robust and chemically stable polymer nanocomposites with high inorganic filler content. Modifying PGNP brushes to append UV-activated crosslinkers along the polymer chains would permit a modular crosslinking strategy applicable to a diverse range of nanocomposite compositions. Further, light-activated crosslinking reactions enable spatial control of crosslink density to program intentionally inhomogeneous mechanical responses. Here, a method of synthesizing composites using UV-crosslinkable brush-coated nanoparticles (referred to as UV-XNPs) is introduced that can be applied to various monomer compositions by incorporating photoinitiators into the polymer brushes. UV crosslinking of processed UV-XNP structures can increase their tensile modulus up to 15-fold without any noticeable alteration to their appearance or shape. By using photomasks to alter UV intensity across a sample, intentionally designed inhomogeneities in crosslink density result in predetermined anisotropic shape changes under strain. This unique capability of UV-XNP materials is applied to stiffness-patterned flexible electronic substrates that prevent the delamination of rigid components under deformation. The potential of UV-XNPs as functional, soft device components is further demonstrated by wearable devices that can be modified post-fabrication to customize their performance, permitting the ability to add functionality to existing device architectures.

Keywords

composites ; nanoparticles ; photocrosslinking ; polymers ; processing

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4-Benzoylphenyl methacrylate

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