Optical Properties and Surface Morphology of PMMA: TiO<sub>2</sub> Nanocomposite Thin Films

Abstract

Sol-gel spin coated PMMA:TiO2 nanocomposite thin films on glass substrates were studied by comparing two types of the sol-gel solutions. Two types of PMMA:TiO2 nanocomposite sol-gel solutions were prepared; one using Degusa (P25), and the other one is using self-prepared TiO2 powder. The self-prepared nanosized TiO2 powder is obtained by drying the TiO2 sol-gel using solvothermal method followed by grinding the TiO2 crystal using ball miller. Triton-X was used as surfactant to stabilize the composite. Besides comparing the nanocomposite solution, we also studied the effect of the thin films thickness on the optical properties and their surface morphology. The optical properties and surface morphology were measured with UV-VIS spectrometer and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The result showed that nanocomposite PMMA with self-prepared TiO2 give high optical transparency than that of with Degusa (P25). The results also indicate that as the thickness is increased the optical transparency are decreased. Both AFM images showed that the agglomerations of TiO2 particles occurred on top of the thin film and the surface roughness increased when the thickness is increased. AFM results show that nanocomposited PMMA with P25 has high agglomeration particles compared to the other one.