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134977 https://hdl.handle.net/2286/R.I.42468 http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ 2016-12 2019-04-13T06:52:05 9 pages eng Balzer, Christopher James Mu, Bin Armstrong, Mitchell Chemical Engineering Program Barrett, The Honors College Text Polymer-nanoparticle composites (PNCs) show improved chemical and physical properties compared to pure polymers. However, nanoparticles dispersed in a polymer matrix tend to aggregate due to strong interparticle interactions. Electrospun nanofibers impregnated with nanoparticles have shown improved dispersion of nanoparticles. Currently, there are few models for quantifying dispersion in a PNC, and none for electrospun PNC fibers. A simulation model was developed to quantify the effects of nanoparticle volume loading and fiber to particle diameter ratios on the dispersion in a nanofiber. The dispersion was characterized using the interparticle distance along the fiber. Distributions of the interparticle distance were fit to Weibull distributions and a two-parameter empirical equation for the mean and standard deviation was found. A dispersion factor was defined to quantify the dispersion along the polymer fiber. This model serves as a standard for comparison for future experimental studies through its comparability with microscopy techniques, and as way to quantify and predict dispersion in polymer-nanoparticle electrospinning systems with a single performance metric. Nanoparticles Polymers Statistics A Model of Nanoparticle Dispersion in Electrospun Nanofibers