Study On Preparation Of TiO₂/PMMA Nanocomposite By Sol-gel Method

The main purpose of this research is used the sol-gel method to make TiO2/PMMA nanocomposite materials and study on the related technologies. This composite material has many advantages. The introduction of nano-titanium dioxide particles not only make the materials with ultraviolet irradiation effection but also improve the material thermal stability and mechanical strength. To make better performance of TiO2/PMMA nanocomposites nanoparticles in the polymer particle should be a smaller size and maintain a good dispersion. Starting from this purpose we would begin the study in two major areas: First, the relative molecular mass of PMMA; second, the sol content in the resin. For this reason, we prepared different molecular weight of PMMA by suspension polymerization and titanium dioxide sol by sol-gel method. Through a certain measure to composite the two materials we prepared the TiO2/PMMA nanocomposites. At last we make it various means of characterization analysis to prove the feasibility of the preparation method and inspect the performance of the composite matrtials.Firstly, the paper researches the technology of suspension polymerization to prepare PMMA. Its molecular weight was measured by Uzziah’s viscosity method. The research in different process parameters shows:The effection of using MgCO3as the dispersant is better and it is more convenient in post-processing. When the concentration of the initiator is small it can get a bigger molecular weight of PMMA but the reaction speed is slow. To improve the reaction temperature is beneficial to the reaction. It can get a lower molecular weight of PMMA while the temperature is higher. To increase the concentration of the monomer can accelerate the response speed. The higher concentration, however, can generate large amount of reaction heat. It will have an adverse effection on the molecular weight. According to the above conclusions, we prepared some PMMA materials with different molecular weight. Second, the paper describes the experimental methods of the preparation of TiO2/PMMA nanocomposite material. We prepared TiO2sol by the sol-gel method and hybridized it into PMMA to acquire TiO2/PMMA nanocomposite. In this way it can be obtained various samples through making various amounts of sol with various molecular weight of PMMA composite. These include blend TiO2sol with0.5%、1%、1.5%、2%、3%wt in the PMMA of molecular weight of373000and1%sol of TiO2in both PMMA of583000and724000. Finally the paper analysis of the above materials. The TiO2/PMMA nanocomposite’s structure and performance including the microphage pattern, molecular structure, UV Absorption Properties and thermal decomposition situation was analyzed through TEM, FT-IR, UV-Vis and TGA and the paper tried to give the explanation about the different properties of these samples. The result indicate when the amount of sol contained1%and the molecular weight of PMMA is relatively low the TiO2particles’ dispersion in PMMA is better. The material’s properties of UV resistance and thermal stability are improved by the accession of TiO2.