Nanocomposites of Au/Disentangled UHMWPE: A Combined Optical and Structural Study
Open accessAbstract
The term disentangled refers to polymers with fewer entanglements in the amorphous regions, a metastable condition that can significantly affect the material’s properties and processing behavior. The lower entanglement density in ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (dis-UHMWPE) facilitates the solid-state processability into uniaxially-oriented specimens reaching very high draw ratios and crystallinities. In this study, Au/dis-UHMWPE nanocomposites were formulated and processed at variable draw ratios. Polarized light microscopy suggests gold nanoparticles are oriented in arrays following the drawing of polymer chains. The structural features, upon orientation, are studied by means of Raman spectroscopy, wide- and small-angle X-ray scattering, and near-infrared spectrophotometry. Crystallinity is found to increase by 15%, as calculated by wide-angle X-ray scattering. The change in optical absorbance in the visible spectrum indicates that, with orientation, the average size of gold aggregates increases, supported quantitatively by small-angle X-ray scattering. Since the gold nanoparticles are expected to be found within amorphous chain segments, the aforementioned findings are attributed to the increase of crystallinity and thus the decrease of available (amorphous) space.
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Extensive structural characterization indicates that the crystallinity of samples with draw ratio around 200 is nearly 90%, and that enlarged crystals with a dimension of about 400-500 nm are separated by fragmented inter-crystalline bridges.
“First, extensive structural characterization of highly drawn samples indicates that the crystallinity of samples with draw ratio around 200 is nearly 90%47,59, and that the enlarged crystals with a dimension of ∼400−500 nm are separated by fragmented inter-crystalline bridges44,46,47.”
From Origin of high thermal conductivity in disentangled ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene films: ballistic phonons within enlarged crystals (2022) · cites this paper as [59]
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Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredExperimental characterization of similar samples indicates that the nanoparticles are oriented in linear chains in the amorphous regions.
“Experimental characterization of similar samples using polarized light microscopy, among other methods, indicates that the nanoparticles are oriented in linear chains in the amorphous regions59.”
From Origin of high thermal conductivity in disentangled ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene films: ballistic phonons within enlarged crystals (2022) · cites this paper as [59]
The average molecular weight of the synthesized disentangled UHMWPE is 5.6 × 10^6 g/mol, as measured by rheological measurements.
“The average molecular weight (Mw) was characterized to be Mw = 5.6 × 106 gmol−1 (ref. 59), as measured using rheological measurements.”
From Origin of high thermal conductivity in disentangled ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene films: ballistic phonons within enlarged crystals (2022) · cites this paper as [59]
A rough estimate from UV-VIS spectra yields an optical absorption depth of 30-40 μm, on the order of the sample thickness.
“A rough estimate of the absorption depth from UV–VIS spectra yields a value of 30–40 μm59, indicating that the optical absorption depth is on the order of the sample thickness.”
From Origin of high thermal conductivity in disentangled ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene films: ballistic phonons within enlarged crystals (2022) · cites this paper as [59]
Section 2.1 (page not provided) reports VIS absorption spectra and a sample thickness of approximately 50 μm; Section 3.3.3 describes the spectrophotometer. Searches for an absorption or penetration depth of 30–40 μm found no such estimate in our copy. The cited numerical value therefore cannot be verified from this source. (LLM, conf=0.74)
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Kim, T., Drakopoulos, S. X., Ronca, S., & Minnich, A. J. (2022) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-022-29904-2 · Cited by 63 · see citing works
“Since PE is transparent to visible light, Au nanoparticles (diameter: ∼ 2 − 12 nm [58]; concentration: 1 wt%) were added as an optical absorber.”
BackgroundSelf-citation
- Authors
- Drakopoulos, S. X., Tarallo, O., Guan, L., Martin-Fabiani, I., & Ronca, S.
- Affiliations
- Loughborough University (GB)
- University of Naples Federico II (IT)
- Department of Materials, Loughborough University, Leicestershire LE11 3TU, UK
- Corresponding author
- Drakopoulos, Stavros X.
- Venue
- Molecules
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2020-07-15
- Volume
- 25
- Issue
- 14
- Pages
- 3225
- ISSN
- 1420-3049 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7397333
- OpenAlex
- W3043197837
- Cited by
- 13
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 2
- FWCI
- 0.95
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- dx.doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Molecules (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Polymers and Plastics › Polymer crystallization and properties
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Polymers and Plastics › Polymer Nanocomposite Synthesis and Irradiation
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Polymers and Plastics › Polymer Nanocomposites and Properties
- Keywords
- gold nanoparticles, ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene, polymer nanocomposites, uniaxial orientation, draw ratio, crystallinity, gold nanoparticle aggregation, polymer chain orientation, optical absorbance, Raman spectroscopy, small-angle X-ray scattering, wide-angle X-ray scattering
- MeSH terms
- Gold, Polyethylenes, Spectrum Analysis, Nanocomposites, Metal Nanoparticles
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