We investigate, both experimentally and through hybrid particle/self-consistent field theoretic
(hSCFT) calculations, the dispersion state of gold nanorods (AuNRs) grafted with
homopolymer, bidispersed, or mixed polymer brushes. AuNRs are grafted with 11.5 kg/mol
PS (HNRs), 11.5 kg/mol PS, and 5.3 kg/mol PS (BNRs) or 11.5 kg/mol PS and 5K poly
(methyl methacrylate)(PMMA)(MBNRs) and cast in PS or PMMA films consisting of short to
very long chains compared to the grafted brush. We further investigated the MBNR systems …