Nanorings, which are increasingly uncovered in natural
systems
and synthesized in man-made materials, exhibit dynamics distinct from
those known for linear chains. We show in this study that, when immersed
in a polymer melt matrix, segments of a stiff nanoring (SNR) have
more facilitated subdiffusion, i.e., with a larger scaling exponent
in the mean squared displacement, than those belonging to one flexible
counterpart, while the whole SNR is more suppressed by its surroundings.
It is revealed that adding SNRs contributes to achieving the long-anticipated
rheological objective of sol- and gel-like characteristics at high
and low shearing frequencies, respectively. This study suggests the
promising prospect of exploiting SNRs to concurrently strengthen and
toughen target polymer nanocomposites.
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