Preparation and characterization of TiO 2 - polymer composite films

Abstract

Interaction between polymers and nanoparticles are known to influence structure and properties of polymer materials containing dispersed nanomaterials. Titanium oxide was prepared by sol-gel method and used as inorganic materials; polyvinyl alcohol was used as polymer matrix. The objectives of this paper are to synthesize and characterized TiO 2 - polymer composite. TiO 2 nanoparticles were dispersed in polymer solution with the aid of ultrasonic vibration to obtained polymer composite materials. The properties of TiO 2 - polymer composite films were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and optical microscopy. FT-IR showed that there existed a strong interaction at the interface of TiO 2 and polymer, which implied that the polymer chains were grafted onto the surface of TiO 2 nanoparticles. It can be also be seen from SEM images that the TiO 2 nanoparticles were perfect dispersed in polymer matrix.