Disordered Hyperuniformity in Materials and Its Influence on Properties

The study of order and disorder in materials across length scales has been an active topic of research in materials science for decades. A relatively new class of material structures of significant interest are disordered hyperuniform materials. Hyperuniformity is defined by the presence of local disorder (similar to amorphous materials) together with highly suppressed long-range density fluctuations (similar to crystals). With their negligible density fluctuations at long length scales, hyperuniform packing structures exhibit efficient control of electromagnetic and/or mechanical waves. Here we demonstrate the fabrication of hyperuniform polymer grafted nanoparticle thin films using additive polymer processing techniques and characterize their resulting mechanical properties. The degree of hyperuniformity can be correlated to the elastic properties of the composite determined by Brillouin light scattering. A bimodal distribution of nanoparticle core diameters and polymer canopy sizes can be used to influence the strength of hyperuniformity. The understanding developed in this research can potentially influence the design of future material components and structures.