Phase-morphology and molecular structure correlations in model fullerene-polymer nanocomposites

Abstract

In this work we have performed a systematic study of blends of [6,6]-phenyl C61 butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) with the following amorphous and semi crystalline polymers: atactic polystyrene (PS), syndiotactic polystyrene (syn-PS), poly(2-vinyl-naphthalene) (P2VN), poly(9- vinyl-phenanthrene) (P9VPh), poly(vinylidene-fluoride) (PVdF) and poly(3-hexyl-thiophene) (P3HT). Experimental measurements using DSC, x-ray and neutron scattering coupled with molecular modeling (MD and DFT) have been utilized to determine the solubility and phase morphology of these model polymer-fullerene blends.