Nanostructures and Dynamics of Macromolecules Bound to Attractive Filler Surfaces

Naisheng Jiang; Maya K Endoh; Tadanori Koga; Tomomi Masui; Hiroyuki Kishimoto; Michihiro Nagao; Sushil K Satija; Takashi Taniguchi

doi:10.1021/acsmacrolett.5b00368

Nanostructures and Dynamics of Macromolecules Bound to Attractive Filler Surfaces

ACS Macro Lett. 2015 Aug 18;4(8):838-842. doi: 10.1021/acsmacrolett.5b00368. Epub 2015 Jul 24.

Authors

Naisheng Jiang, Maya K Endoh, Tadanori Koga, Tomomi Masui¹, Hiroyuki Kishimoto¹, Michihiro Nagao^{2

3}, Sushil K Satija², Takashi Taniguchi⁴

Affiliations

¹ Sumitomo Rubber Industries Ltd., 1-1, 2-chome, Tsutsui-cho, Chuo-ku, Kobe, 671-0027, Japan.
² NIST Center for Neutron Research, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899-6102, United States.
³ Center for Exploration of Energy and Matter, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47408, United States.
⁴ Graduate School of Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, Kyoto University, Katsura-Campus, Nishikyo-ku, Kyoto, 615-8510, Japan.

PMID: 35596506
DOI: 10.1021/acsmacrolett.5b00368

Abstract

We report in situ nanostructures and dynamics of polybutadiene (PB) chains bound to carbon black (CB) fillers (the so-called "bound polymer layer (BPL)") in a good solvent. The BPL on the CB fillers was extracted by solvent leaching of a CB-filled PB compound and subsequently dispersed in deuterated toluene to label the BPL for small-angle neutron scattering and neutron spin echo techniques. The results demonstrate that the BPL is composed of two regions regardless of molecular weights of PB: the inner unswollen region of ≈ 0.5 nm thick and outer swollen region where the polymer chains display a parabolic profile with a diffuse tail. In addition, the results show that the dynamics of the swollen bound chains can be explained by the so-called "breathing mode" and is generalized with the thickness of the swollen BPL.