Design of Multifunctional Nanocomposites through Mixed-Graft Block Copolymer Templating

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PART 1: NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARYPolymer-nanoparticle composites offer numerous advantages over traditional single-component materials for a variety of applications. By combining desirable properties from different materials and creating new functions through unique interactions at the polymer-nanoparticle interfaces, these composites have the potential to revolutionize various fields, including sensing, energy conversion, and soft electronics. This project aims to develop an innovative approach to producing hybrid organic-inorganic materials endowed with multiple independently tunable properties. To achieve this, graft copolymers and functional nanoparticles will be co-assembled. The design of graft copolymers involves the incorporation of dissimilar polymeric side chains into a linear backbone, resulting in the formation of novel ordered nanostructures that are not easily attainable with other materials. The integration of functional nanoparticles into specific domains or interfaces of these nanostructured polymers will enhance their respective functional properties through precisely defined interactions between particles and polymers. The successful development of these nanocomposite materials with independently tunable properties holds great promise for advancing the field of materials science, with potential applications in optoelectronics and energy devices.PART 2: TECHNICAL SUMMARYMixed-graft block copolymers (mGBCPs) that contain dissimilar side chains combine the unique properties of both block copolymers and graft architecture, providing access to materials with synergistically enhanced properties. This project aims to synthesize, process, and characterize mGBCPs, with a primary focus on their applications as template materials for the preparation of multifunctional nanocomposites. Precisely defined side chain sequences in mGBCPs enable the formation of ordered hierarchical nanostructures across a broad range of characteristic length scales. Co-assembly of these mGBCPs with inorganic nanoparticles results in hierarchically structured nanocomposites with control over the size, geometry, and orientation of formed nanoparticle arrays. By rationally engineering the mGBCP structures and polymer-nanoparticle interactions, electronic band structures, photoenergy transfer behaviors, and thermomechanical properties of the nanocomposites can be precisely tuned or optimized. Furthermore, integrating more than one type of functional nanoparticles into mGBCPs through diverse orthogonal polymer-nanoparticle interactions will create a design platform for the discovery of functional materials with multiple independently tunable properties..This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.