Towards optimization of electrical network and mechanical property of polymer nanocomposites with grafted nanoparticles

We demonstrate that comprehensive electrical network and mechanical property of polymer nanocomposite (PNC) are coherently related to the specific dispersion of nanoparticles, which can be controlled by grafting like and unlike polymer chains. For PNC where the graft chain has the same chemistry as matrix, if the graft chains are relatively short, the grafted nanoparticle containing 0.4 chains in unit area can result in a loose and continuous percolating cluster, at which the optimized electrical and mechanical utilities can be achieved. At low grafting density (0.08 chains in unit area), the optimized characteristics can be fulfilled through extending the graft chain length to the ratio of 0.4 (graft chain length to matrix chain length). If the graft chain has different chemical structure, the optimum performance of PNC emerges at the low grafting density, where the matrix–graft interaction is 1.5 times the matrix–matrix interaction, and the ratio is 0.5.