Figure 3.

Polymer-soluble nanoparticles disperse in the film of substrate-grafted polymers. (a) Schematic of polymer film containing nanoparticles in contact with air. (b) Predicted phase diagram describing polymer brush–nanoparticle mixtures: complete mixing b < b^∗, partial mixing b^∗ < b < b_max, exclusion b > b_max. The typical blob size and surface blob size are ξ_blob and ξ_surf, respectively. Reproduced with permission ref. [30] Copyright 2009, The American Physical Society. (c) Variation of the penetration length d/N with dimensionless inclusion size (b/b^∗) for brushes of different height L and grafting density s, given in the legend. The (b/b^∗)^-3 is indicated by a dashed line. Reprinted from ref. [43], with permission from Elsevier. (d) Gold-to-carbon (Au/C) elemental ratio as a function of the XPS take-off angle for the two nanoparticle sizes in polymer brushes with two different thicknesses. Reprinted from ref. [40], with permission from IOP Publishing. Copyright 2003, IOP Publishing.