Miscibility Enhancement in All-Polymer Nanocomposites Composed of Weakly-Charged Flexible Chains and Polar Nanoparticles

We report the phase behavior of nanocomposites composed of weakly-charged flexible polymers and polar nanoparticles by extending a mean-field theory for all-polymer nanocomposites recently introduced (Journal of Nano Research 2 (2008) 105). Translational, nanoparticle-driven, electrostatic and enthalpic interaction effects are taken into account. Weakly-charged polymers are predicted to be miscible with polar nanoparticles about one order of magnitude larger (in radius) than conventional uncharged polymers, even in the presence of moderate unfavorable enthalpic interactions. The detrimental effect of addition of a low molecular weight monovalent 1-1 salt on nanocomposite miscibility is also evaluated.