Achievement

IGERT Trainee Benjamin Dach, working with Professors Turro and Koberstein and their research groups, has developed a supramolecular building block approach for the preparation of a new family of polymer-nanoparticle composites that are crosslinked, but do not require a polymer matrix. These novel Matrix-Free Nanocomposites (MFNs) are not prone to the nanoparticle aggregation effects that plague conventional nanocomposites and hold promise to provide exceptionally high strength and toughness due to the incorporation of covalent polymer bridges between nanoparticles. MFNs are prepared by curing a mixture of two different polymer-brush modified nanoparticles bearing terminal azide and alkyne groups. The new family of nanocomposites is not subject to nanoparticle aggregation because a polymer matrix is not required. Nanocomposites are crosslinked by click reactions between complementary alkyne and azide groups.