Colloidal nano-toolbox for molecularly regulated polymerization: chemorheology over 6 decades of viscoelasticity

Abstract

A universal approach to gain control over molecular interactions among activated, ready-to-react monomers, e.g., ammonium zirconium carbonate, has been proposed in which the monomers bind to two families of nanoengineered celluloses, namely hairy and conventional nanocelluloses with various surface functionalities and steric and electrosteric moieties. Engineering the colloidal interactions, the polymerization reaction was tailored to yield a spectrum of ultrasoft (5 decades decrease in viscoelastic moduli) to highly-reinforced (4000% enhanced viscoelasticity) nanocomposites using only 0.5 wt% nanoparticles.