Study on Acrylic Resin/Alumina Hybrid Materials Prepared by the Sol‐Gel Process

Abstract

Few reports concerning acrylic resin/alumina hybrid are available due to the high reactivity of the precursor of alumina. In this paper, we describe the preparation of acrylic resin/alumina hybrids by mixing acrylic resin and alumina sols that were first obtained by the sol‐gel process. The obtained hybrids were absolutely homogeneous. The storage modulus, T g, tensile strength, tensile modulus, and thermal stability of the hybrids increased considerably, even with a very small amount of embedded alumina, in comparison with pure acrylic resin but did not change significantly with rising alumina content, ethylacetoacetate (EAA) content, and the temperature of the sol‐gel process. This is attributed to excessive –OH and/or –OR groups from alumina sol in comparison with –COOH groups of acrylic resin. An increase in methacrylic acid (MAA) content could increase the mechanical properties of the hybrids.