Gas Transport of Self-assembled Polymer Nanocomposites with Binary Nanoparticle Size

Covalently grafting organic (hydrophobic) polymer chains to inorganic (hydrophilic) nanoparticles is a facile means of addressing their inherent immiscibility. We have previously shown that membranes comprised of such grafted nanoparticles (GNPs) exhibit remarkable increases in gas permeabilities relative to that of the neat polymer. Here, we go beyond these previous works and combine GNPs of two different core sizes (14 nm and 50 nm) to probe the role of NP size polydispersity on NP structuring and therefore properties. Structurally, we find that the GNPs form self-assembled structures that fill space. We present the self-assembled morphologies and measured gas transport properties of these polymer nanocomposites with binary core sizes.