Rheology and Processing of Inorganic Nanomaterials and Quantum Dots/Polymer Nanocomposites

Polymer nanocomposites (PNCs) based on inorganic nanoparticles (NPs) are emerging as an important class of multiphase, multicomponent materials with unique sets of structure-processing-property correlations. Metal oxides can adopt a vast number of structural geometries with an electronic structure that can exhibit conductor, semiconductor, or insulator character. Rheological characterization of PNCs is very important in order to understand the viscoelastic flow behavior of the system. It gives an overall idea about how the addition of various fillers influences the structure-property relationship. Addition of nanofillers usually led to dramatic decrease in viscosity values of the neat polymer due to the uniform dispersion of nanoparticles in polymer matrix which reduces the tendency toward uncontrolled flocculation. At low loading of fillers, the polymer filler composite systems usually behaves like Newtonian fluid, and at higher loading there is a tendency to change from Newtonian to non-Newtonian behavior.