Publication: Structure and Optical Properties of Titania-PDMS Hybrid Nanocomposites Prepared by In Situ Non-Aqueous Synthesis.

Published in: Nanomaterials (Basel) 2017 Dec; 7(12):

Authors: Dalod ARM, Grendal OG, Blichfeld AB, Furtula V, Pérez J, Henriksen L, Grande T, Einarsrud MA

Summary

Organic-inorganic hybrid materials are attractive due to the combination of properties from the two distinct types of materials. In this work, transparent titania-polydimethylsiloxane hybrid materials with up to 15.5 vol. % TiO₂ content were prepared by an in situ non-aqueous method using titanium (IV) isopropoxide and hydroxy-terminated polydimethylsiloxane as precursors. Spectroscopy (Fourier transform infrared, Raman, Ultraviolet-visible, ellipsometry) and small-angle X-ray scattering analysis allowed to describe in detail the structure and the optical properties of the nanocomposites. Titanium alkoxide was successfully used as a cross-linker and titania-like nanodomains with an average size of approximately 4 nm were shown to form during the process. The resulting hybrid nanocomposites exhibit high transparency and tunable refractive index from 1.42 up to 1.56, depending on the titania content.

Link to Pubmed [PMID] – 29261106

Link to DOI – 10.3390/nano7120460