The confinement of poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) in porous materials derived from organic resins and carbon nanoparticles leads to the disappearance of crystallization and to a significant modification of the glass transition. Textural data on pristine and PEO-filled materials obtained by means of nitrogen physisorption link this thermal behaviour to the spatial confinement of PEO in the micro- and mesopore cavities, and it is largely dictated by the morphology and composition of the underlying substrate. High-resolution inelastic neutron scattering of PEO confined in carbon nanoparticles confirms that the chain conformations are distinctly different from those characteristic of the semicrystalline bulk, and similar to those of PEO confined in the interlayer space of graphite oxide. © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2013.

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the Spanish MEC (MAT2012-39199-C02-02 and MAT2012-31088), and the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council for the provision of beam time on the TOSCA spectrometer. PP acknowledges a PhD research contract from UCM (BE45/10). FFA and SR acknowledge financial support from the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council.

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