Stretched polymers will lose their possible configurations if they are mixed with nanoparticles or touch a hard wall, which leads to a strong depletion attraction responsible for the enrichment of nanoparticles near substrates. Moreover, it is found that there exists a sacrifice mechanism in confined pure polymer samples or polymer—nanoparticle mixtures, that part of the polymers, in order to reach a minimum free energy for the total system, are adsorbed on hard walls even though they lose their conformation. The current study provides a simple yet effective approach for the design of thin polymer composites.

中文翻译：

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受限聚合物-纳米颗粒复合材料的熵主导行为

如果拉伸聚合物与纳米粒子混合或接触硬壁，它们将失去其可能的构型，这会导致强烈的耗尽吸引力，从而导致纳米粒子在基板附近富集。此外，发现在受限的纯聚合物样品或聚合物-纳米颗粒混合物中存在牺牲机制，即部分聚合物为了达到整个系统的最小自由能而被吸附在硬壁上，即使它们失去了他们的构象。目前的研究为薄聚合物复合材料的设计提供了一种简单而有效的方法。