Entropy dominated behaviors of confined polymer-nanoparticle composites

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.