Synthesis and Optical Properties of Anatase-TiO2Nanoparticles in Commercial Poly(methylmethacrylate): A Green Approach for Wider Acceptability?

Abstract

ABSTRACT The present paper reports synthesis and optical properties of nano-sized anatase-TiO2 particles/poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA) nanocomposite. Because as-prepared TiO2 nanoparticles are well dispersed in solvents such as DMF and toluene, they can be easily loaded homogeneously by chemical mixing method in commercial PMMA. No costly apparatus was used for such composite fabrication and the method can be considered quite green and human friendly and it can be best described as beaker nanotechnology. Small solvent dependency of the nanoTiO2 in PMMA was noticed, which showed only slight differences in their band gap energy as against the original TiO2 nanoparticles. The absorption wavelength of as-prepared TiO2 shifted from 300 to about 300–320 nm when toluene or DMF was used as a dispersion medium, indicating a red-shift of about 10–20 nm, mainly due to increasing concentration of the nanoparticles. Photoluminescence measurement showed near band gap emission from the so-obtained nanocomposite. The t...