Improvement in thermo mechanical and optical properties of in situ synthesized PMMA/TiO2 nanocomposite

In this paper, transparent thin films of nano titania filled Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) composites were synthesized by solvent casting method using tetra hydro furan as a solvent, with in situ nonaqueous 'sol-gel' transformation involving the mixing of titanium isopropoxide (as sol-gel precursor) and methanol. The present research work is focused at studying the effect of titania loading on optical and mechanical behavior of transparent nano hybrid thin films. The effect of nano Titanium dioxide (TiO2) loading on PMMA morphology was studied by using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Bowl shaped structures were obtained in pure PMMA thin film, which were deformed on incorporation of TiO2 nanoparticles. This nanocomposite exhibits enhanced optical and mechanical properties. The peak of UV absorption is blue shifted to 261 and 266 nm with the incorporation of TiO2. At this wavelength, the absorption is increased up to approximately 397%. The nanocomposites exhibit increased tensile strength up to 40% and modulus up to 16%. Tg of PMMA increased from 84.8 to 86.7 degrees C on adding 1.25% TiO2 nanoparticles.