Effective Solution Mixing Method to Fabricate Highly Transparent and Optical Functional Organic−Inorganic Nanocomposite Film

Abstract

The organic−inorganic hybrid optical materials with a high transmittance of visible-light have shown great potential applications. However, it is still in challenge to maintain the transparency of optical materials when the inorganic nanoparticles (NPs) are introduced into the polymer matrix because of Rayleigh scattering caused by the severely aggregation of NPs, which is a huge obstacle for its applications. This article reports a transparent “solution” mixing method to fabricate a highly transparent nanocomposite film of zinc oxide (ZnO)/poly (methyl methacrylate)-co-poly (styrene) (PMMA-PS) with the novel UV-shielding properties. The transparent “solution” containing nanoparticles was prepared by phase-transfer of ZnO NPs suspension in hexane to NPs dispersion in toluene with surface modifier. The latter dispersion had the complete transparency as a solution (so-called “solution”). It was found that the incorporation of ZnO NPs not only provided UV-shielding ability to the PMMA-PS nanocomposite film w...