2018/10/13 by Mubeena, Sk.
#FOS: Physical sciences #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1810.05811
Shearing of nanocomposites has shown to produce ordered nanostructures and orientation in the polymeric matrix. Due to the importance of the formation of an ordered structure of nanoparticles in a polymeric matrix to device wearable, flexible and photonic materials, its useful to get an insight of the shear-induced ordering and other properties of the polymeric nanocomposites. In this paper, we use a model Wormlike micellar matrix to study the arrangement and morphology of nanoparticles in the composite when the system is sheared using a hybrid multiparticle dynamics and molecular dynamics simulation technique. We observe a shear-induced phase separation of nanoparticles as well as an increase in the long-range ordering of the nanostructures as a result of shear. We also show that in order to form a well-packed and highly ordered structure, the nanoparticles with a smaller size should be preferred.